Restoration
by moonfiretiarasoulaction
Summary: Inspired by several novels set in Victorian times I wanted to write a kind of Dickensian/Wilkie Collins type thriller set in the Meiji era for the characters of Scum's Wish. I tried to remain faithful to the spirit of the characters, but due to their background in this story, there will be deviations. Warning: there is an attempted rape, a suicide and four characters die.
1. Chapter 1

In the year 1891, twenty-three years after the revolution that restored all political power in the empire of Japan to it's new Emperor Meiji and ended the period of the Shogunate, the island nation had become a prosperous modern state with grand ambition.

But while great wealth was being acquired by the powerful new elite many groups still yearned for a return to the ways of the past.

Many farmers had lost their livelihood and independence because of the new taxation-system and the measures the government had implemented in order to change Japan from a rural nation into an industrial powerhouse.

Women had lost much of the rights and financial independence they had enjoyed during the Shogunate. The owners of the factories in the cities profited from the situation in the country by employing the judicially disempowered daughters of the financially troubled farmers under harsh conditions, deceitfully indebting the young women to them and housing them in factory-owned dormitories that became breeding-grounds for cholera and TBC epidemics.

The invisible minorities of the Empire like the Burakumin, people who due to the nature of their inherited professions - like tanners, butchers, or undertakers - were considered tainted through association with death and shunted by the rest of society, had received equal rights by the government but continued to suffer from century-old stigma's while the government showed no intention to further improve their situation.

The right to murder members of these minorities with impunity used to be one of several outrageous ancient rights enjoyed by the now abolished Samurai class.

Many former Samurai had adapted well to the modern times, finding employment within the government or in business, but many others found themselves unable to adapt.  
Their fortunes declined due to mismanagement and they remembered the times when they were revered by members of the other castes with nostalgic regret.

It should not be surprising then that the period of the Meiji restoration saw many uprisings and disturbances of all sizes.  
Disenchanted former Samurai and farmers often banded together in attempts at contra-revolution.  
Futile attempts, because the state had rapidly grown strong and the modern conscription army was able to overcome all the Samurai's expertise and experience with its ability to constantly replenish its numbers.

Faced with this situation, one of the former Samurai caste who had seen the government strip his father and family from the hereditary title of Daimyo and the governing power that came with it had early on decided on another way to defeat the new government: Infiltration.

The Kirishima family of Fujisawa-Osaka had managed to remain prosperous in the modern times through smart investment and business acumen but fueled by a nostalgic ambition for more power over their fellow men than this new society could ever provide them they yearned to dethrone the emperor and abolish the changes wrought by the government.  
They had started tentatively by positioning confidants in strategic places in the government and the army and as they found new allies and co-conspirators over the years their secret power grew.

When they caught word that Emperor Meiji would come to Fujisawa-Osaka in the autumn of 1891 to honor the combat exercises of the local garrison with his presence the conspirators judged the time ripe to start the coup that would bring them the throne and herald the return of the old ways.

But before that happened the would-be Emperor of the Kirishima family wanted to ensure his progeny.

One other ancient and outrageous tradition connected specifically to the Daimyo's of the Kirishima clan was the ritual of divine selection.  
In early feudal times, the family wanted their heir to be married to the young woman most suited to be the wife of a leader of warriors.  
To that end, they organized a life or death tournament between the Samurai daughters who wanted to mary the male heir, confident that the girl who emerged victorious would be able to adequately support her husband in times of war.

By the time the young Atsuya Kirishima was born the tradition had long been abandoned and had obviously become illegal. Nevertheless, Atsuya's father proposes to those faithful to him that at the day of his son's 22nd birthday a similar tournament would be held and that the girl who emerged victorious would be sure to become one of the most powerful women in the Empire.

It should not surprise anyone that in those more enlightened times few families would want to gamble the lives of their daughters, yet two high-bred families saw fit to do just that and as they grew up Atsuya's father considered that either of them would make a very fine wife to his son.

Akane Minagawa, who had received the honorary title of Amaterasu Gozen in honor of the Goddess of the sun, was a beautiful young woman admired throughout Fujiwara and had been trained from a young age in armed combat.  
Failed investments had struck her family's fortune when she was born and in desperation, they saw a chance to ensure the future of their daughter and raise their fortune and position to its former glory.  
They spared no expenses to ensure their daughter could not be beaten at the day of the ritual.

Hanabi Yasuraoka, who in turn was named Uzume Gozen in honor of the Goddess of dawn, possessed a more modest beauty but was a young woman of great intelligence and refined behavior fit for the wife of a ruler.  
Her parents were possibly financially worse of than the Minagawa family, but they did not care to bridle their expenses and pledged their daughter to the ritual of divine selection as soon as they heard their secret leader's declaration, fully expecting to better themselves through marriage.  
In spite of their daughter's comparatively low proficiency in armed combat, they maintained that on the day of the duel she would find a way to bring them victory.

And so, as Atsuya Kirishima's father planned the downfall of the government, these two girls counted the days before they would meet to defend their lives against each other.

But then, suddenly, Hanabi disappeared.

The arbitrator for the ritual came to the Yasuraoka home and talked to her parents until he was satisfied they truly knew nothing of her whereabouts.  
The Kirishima family dreaded the girl would talk to someone about the ritual and ordered the arbitrator to find the girl and bring her back by any means and in any state.

Akane Minigawa, however, asked permission to find her adversary herself and swore the girl's parents, the arbitrator, and Atsuya and his father that she would bring her back unharmed.  
The arbitrator, who the decision lay by since he was the one who had been given the order, thought long about her proposal. At last, with a soft smile, he nodded his agreement.

And so began Akane's journey through the neighboring towns and villages.  
A search that at first yielded little results, but after many weeks finally led her through a reliable eye witness account to the Empire's capital.

* * *

It was cold in the bamboo basket factory where Akane had found employment.  
Sitting on a wooden floor covered only by the waste of the bamboo baskets she and her colleagues were making didn't do anything to improve the situation.

Looking at the girls in front of her and the girls in the rows on either side of hers Akane saw the same kinds of faces she had found everywhere she had worked during her search for her runaway adversary.  
Plain looking girls, unlike Akane. Many of them younger than her. Most of them from the countryside.  
All working hard to reach the quota for the day and obtain the points necessary to deserve payment.

Akane worked harder than most of them, due to being hardier. And due to having a clearly defined goal other than making money to pay off the debt of being brought here from the country, the "privilege" of living in the nearby dormitories and food so the girls could get through the next day.

Of course, Akane didn't actually need the money she earned here.

Her parents provided her with enough to get modest but private lodgings, food and whatever was necessary to do what she had come here for.  
Her employment served only for her to not stand out.

As usual, when applying for work, the men who hired had been apprehensive at first, noticing her confident demeanor. Factory managers liked to find their workers on their own terms and for a clearly defined long term. Girls who looked like they would do anything without contradiction was what they wanted. But as soon as they were content that she kept working as hard as she had promised and didn't cause any trouble they were loath to see her leave when the time came.

Akane was almost done here now. She had finally found Hanabi Yasuraoka after having spent so many months searching.

Akane had been furious when she heard the coward had fled her home.  
She had gone in pursuit right after consulting the arbitrator of the ritual of divine selection with her parents and Hanabi's.  
Now she was finally able to bring Uzume Gozen back home again. Hanabi would be guarded night and day after this, Akane thought as she finished the basket in front of her with a tug.

There would be no more chances for Hanabi to escape her fate.

* * *

A few hours later, having finished work, Akane was hiding in a narrow passage between two wooden houses in a shady street.  
It was getting dark, but she had a clear view of the three-story house on the opposite side of the street and could wait leisurely for her target to show herself.

Finally, she had come across Hanabi after searching from village to village for so long. Two weeks ago she had heard of someone fitting the younger girl's description having been seen near this neighborhood in Tokyo.  
Akane had followed the lead immediately and arrived in Tokyo, wasting no time in finding lodging and employment so she could stake out the neighborhood Hanabi had been seen in.

After about a quarter of an hour, the girl she had been chasing came out of the house Akane had been watching.  
After all the anticipation her heart beat violently and she took a moment to steel herself, employing acupuncture techniques to calm herself down.

Then, to her surprise, she saw a heavy horse-drawn cart drive over the grey flat stones the street was paved with and stop at the house. The two men driving the cart approached Hanabi.  
They wore large white skirts and one of them had a butcher's knife hidden underneath.  
They were burakumin apparently. Butchers from the nearby slaughterhouse.

Akane watched the men come close to Hanabi, shamelessly joking with her and touching her.

If Hanabi allowed these creatures to pollute her by their touch that was her business, but this familiarity with one from the Samurai caste was something the older girl could not endure, and gritting her teeth she surveyed the street, making sure nobody else was around.

With a sprint, the elegant young woman charged into the two butchers and knocked them out with her scabbard before they could react.  
Instantly she turned and unsheathed her razor-sharp kodachi, pointing it at the throat of Hanabi, who had stumbled and fallen while recoiling in terror from the sudden attack.

In the light of the setting sun, the flaxen-haired girl's cold hazel eyes glared at the black-haired girl who was supporting herself on her elbows while the dagger that threatened her life prevented her from sitting up.

"You are Hanabi Yasuraoka?" Akane asked with a voice as frosty as the air they were breathing.

The other girl nodded.

"I am Akane Minagawa. You cowardly fled our hometown and now I see you got yourself into trouble with these things," Akane pointed at the Burakumin lying in the dust.  
"It doesn't matter. Nobody else will hurt you. You are mine to kill."

Her voice was unwavering and resolute.  
But to her curiosity, Hanabi was not afraid and did not resist.

Blushing slightly the younger girl slowly opened her mouth: "It's okay. You can kill me."

The pupils of the upright girl dilated.

"But I want to ask one favor. Can I?"  
Hanabi smiled at the girl who held a sword pointed at her heart and calmly asked: "Can we stay here and be friends until the day we fight in the ritual?"

Akane frowned in surprise. She had been prepared for every kind of tactic, but what was she supposed to do with this? What was this girl saying?

The traditions of their ancestors did not allow one to escape from the ritual for divine selection.  
If a girl would try to run away she was to be hunted down and brought back.  
Instead of having this task performed by others Akane had been able to convince the arbitrator of the ritual of divine selection to allow her to bring Hanabi back herself.  
Now she was being asked to suspend the retrieval of her future adversary and guard her in Tokyo for a prolonged time.

Akane pricked the other girl with the point of her sword. She drew blood from her skin, yet Hanabi did not flinch.

"Surely you do not think that you can deceive me with such nonsense?" The flaxen-haired girl sneered.  
"Do you really think I will give you a chance to run away again?"  
She scratched her blade down Hanabi's right shoulder, leaving bloody marks.

The other girl slowly shook her head.  
"It's not nonsense. It's my heartfelt desire!"

Her beautiful honest eyes looked into Akane's.  
Even though inevitable death was close to her, how could this girl innocently smile like this?

Akane was silenced, but Hanabi pursued her answer.

"Well, how about it?  
You can stop whenever you change your mind. I am at your mercy in any case. You can take me back to Fujisawa town at that time.  
So why not?"

Hanabi looked up at Akane's face.  
"You are the most important person in my life. No other person can understand this wish," She pleaded.

Uzume Gozen's bright periwinkle eyes reflected the last light of the setting sun.  
"Please support my proposition, Akane-chan!"

Hanabi's eager words brought Akane back to reality.  
The voice that echoed in Akane's ears sounded like a nightingale. Akane wanted to hear more of that voice.

But she could not say so.

"Yasuraoka-san," She, at last, said, pronouncing the other girl's name with a threatening scowl.

"Yes?"

"I agree to your proposal."

"Oh! Thank you!" Hanabi smiled as the older girl lifted the dagger from her body and sheathed it in a white scabbard before hiding it inside the checkered dark teal kimono that suited her so well.

It seemed that all of this time Hanabi had found employment in a meat shop.  
She had come out that evening to accept a delivery from the slaughterhouse for the nabe restaurant the meat shop was attached to.  
As Akane helped Hanabi up the tall mustachioed owner of the meat shop came out of a door at the side of the house, alarmed by the noise of the fight.

To her great embarrassment and frustration, Akane was forced to apologize to the two burly men she had knocked down.  
She didn't mind showing Hanabi by means of a savage glare just how much she loathed having to do this in order to protect the other girl's employment.

* * *

The next Sunday Akane wrote a long letter to the arbitrator and her parents about what had happened and made sure to properly motivate her decision by adding that this situation would allow her to study her opponent from nearby.

After returning from the post office and navigating her way through Tokyo's chaotic streets, dodging rickshaws and horse-drawn carriages left and right, she sat down in her room and meditated.  
Mastering the rhythm of her breathing and listening to the soft rustle of her heart Akane shut out the cheers and calls of the busy shopping street in which the inn she had rented her room in was located.  
Like gentle waves the air flowed in and out of her lungs, unhindered by the clatter of wheels and horses hooves.

Akane's soul, like a drop of water in the ocean, expanded and merged with the rest of the world. Accepting its shortcomings and her own she experienced the peace of mind it had taken her so long to find.

The gentle creaking of the floorboards in the hallway alerted her that someone was approaching.  
Her visitor stood still before the white shoji that bordered Akane's room and gently called out to her.

"Akane-chan? Can I come in?"

'What's with that impertinent way of addressing me?' Akane thought irritably. 'It was the same when I confronted her at the meat shop.'

She slowly got up, walked to meet her guest, and opened the sliding door.

"Sorry for disturbing," The smaller girl bowed before she came in and her host closed the door behind her.

Akane watched the gentle curve of the blackette's shoulders in her blue kimono and let her eyes slide down Hanabi's arms to the package she was holding up in a cream-colored linen cloth.

"I wanted to talk to you and so I prepared lunch for the both of us," The young woman timidly declared while bowing. "Please accept this humble show of gratitude for accepting me into your home."

Akane eyed the younger girl with a cold stare but took the package from her with a nod.

"Thank you. I am sure we will enjoy it," She curtly replied.  
"Please sit down and join me in eating these dishes."

"Thank you," Hanabi softly replied and following the older girl's example she sat down at the low wooden table in the middle of the room.

Akane unfolded the cloth that was decorated with golden cranes from the plain wooden box it contained.  
Sliding the lid out of the partitioned box revealed several pale blue lacquered cups filled with pickled cucumbers, cabbage and soya beans in vinegar, soba noodles in a red sauce and meat in a brown sauce.

"That is sauce bolognese and beef stew," Hanabi enlightened her when she kept staring at the last two cups."

Akane separated the top of the wooden box from the bottom and placed the cups it contained - intended for Hanabi - in front of her, poured miso soup and tea from a pair of green lacquered decanters that were also contained in the box, and placed chopsticks on the table in front of them.

"Thank you for the food," Both young women nodded.

The dishes were very enjoyable. The sauce bolognese tasted sweet and sour and complemented the beef stew very well.  
Akane had to admit that the burakumin who delivered the meat to her guest's employer were very good at their sinful profession.  
She was delighted at the savory taste of the beef stew. Hanabi evidently was a very good cook.

"The food tastes excellent. But this seems rather extravagant for lunch," She dubiously complemented the blackette.

"Thank you. As I expected, you think too highly of my cooking," Hanabi slightly bowed. "As to the extravagance. Think of it as brunch."

"Brunch?" Akane raised an eyebrow.

"In the west people don't eat breakfast before they go to Sunday service. So when they come back home close to noon they eat a more lavish meal they call brunch," The young woman in front of her explained.

The flaxen-haired young woman chewed her pickled cucumber with a grimace.  
She hadn't taken Hanabi for a modernist.

In truth, she had no opinion on the matter of western cuisine and western customs herself, although her teachers had always stressed a sober traditional diet.  
The country seemed to have benefitted greatly from the westerners who had been employed by the government, so western influence didn't seem especially bad to her.  
But she didn't see any point in courting western ways beyond what was useful.

She looked at the blackette who was eating her food with downcast eyes.

"You are the most important person in my life," Hanabi had said that evening.  
What did she mean by that?

Certainly, Akane acknowledged that they had a relationship no other two people on earth shared.  
It was their fate to battle each other on the day of the ritual of divine selection.  
She had assumed Hanabi had wanted to flee that fate and shame her ancestors, but now it seemed the younger woman had a different motive for coming here.

"Yasuraoka-san, What did you mean by becoming friends?" Akane asked as she gave the surprised blackette an intimidating stare.

Hanabi swallowed the piece of meat she had just picked with her chopsticks before she had been addressed and hemmed.  
"I want to have fun during the last handful of months of my life. I ran away from home to see new things."

"You are working in a meat shop," Akane retorted with a malicious grin.

"I need a way to sustain myself and not stand out obviously," Hanabi pouted.  
"I do lots of fun things on Sundays. Tokyo possesses so much more attractions than Fujisawa-Osaka. And since you are here to take me back my only hope is to persuade you to join me in my little rebellion against the arbitrator."

Akane grimaced. She wasn't exactly a fan of the arbitrator or the power he held over them.  
In fact, she felt repulsed by the man's insinuating attentions.

Normally a man she had seduced would secretly court her attention for a while, but he would quickly fall back to the ordinary routine of ignoring her when forced to interact with her.

If not, his wife - to whom Akane made sure to regularly imprint the painful fact that the young woman who had always been treated as an outcast by the other women and men in the village had been able to steal her husband's devotion from her - would remind him that Amaterasu Gozen was a tainted woman.

The arbitrator of the ritual of divine selection, however, had a disturbing way of looking at her that made her feel more like an outcast than being shunned by the entire town of Fujisawa-Osaka did.

"I think we can agree I am not going to win the ritual of divine selection," Hanabi continued, squirming and casting clouded eyes downward before stealing a glance upward. "You are much better trained than I am. I know that. That is why I hope you will appeal to the arbitrator to allow us this diversion until the time of the ritual."

Akane observed the eager, submissive expression and bow of the girl who had just made her lunch.  
For some reason, she could not say no to those eyes.

And anyway, she had already agreed. She merely wanted to know more about Hanabi's intentions.

"Then what is it you want to do for fun?" She asked.

Akane saw a tiny light explode in each of Hanabi's periwinkle eyes as the blackette returned her honest inquisitive look. It was quite dazzling. She wondered if it was just her imagination.

"For starters let me take you to the park. There's a beautiful park around the nearby shrine where we can go flower gazing once spring starts.  
And there is one other thing I want to do first today," Hanabi said with an awkward look. "But can it be a surprise?"

* * *

"A painting?!" Akane gasped as Hanabi led her through a bustling street of two-story wooden houses with blue lacquered clay-tiled gabled roofs which with little exception had businesses off all kinds conducted from the ground floor.

"Yes. Now you are here I want to have a portrait made of the two of us," The blackette replied with a sidelong glance at her companion.

"Why would I agree to something so morbid?"

"It's not morbid. We are going to have fun together for the first time in our lives in a city where people know nothing of our fate. I want some kind of proof to exist that we weren't always adversaries."

Akane looked coldly at the imploring eyes directed at her.

A rickshaw narrowly missed them when she pulled Hanabi out of its way.

"Thank you for your care," Hanabi bowed and sighed before eyeing a bookstore displaying a variety of volumes outside the shop stacked on wooden crates underneath the blue tiled awning of the ground floor. "And I have a request... " She continued with her attention turned to the older girl again.

"Please keep the painting with you to remember me by after my defeat."

Akane swallowed as she stared wide-eyed at the young woman bowing low before her at the edge of the flattened earth pedestrian walk in front of a colorful toyshop.  
'This girl can't be right in the head,' She thought.

"I am not wasting money on your morbid desire," Akane imperiously stated while trying to recover from the shock of the outrageous request.

"Akane-chan, look over there!"

The flaxen-haired young woman looked in confusion at the unremarkable umbrella shop the suddenly excited younger girl was pointing at.  
Hanabi unexpectedly took her by the arm, and pulled her along, not allowing Akane an opening for refusal.

They went into a painters atelier after all.

* * *

"Please paint a picture of us together," Hanabi asked the master.  
She pushed Akane into a dark-green cushioned western chair and stood behind her.

When the painter told them how much it would cost Akane tried to leave, but Hanabi put her arms firmly around her torso and restrained her.

"I am not spending that much money on this!" The struggling flaxen-haired girl protested. "Let me go!"

"I will pay two thirds!" Hanabi whined. "Won't you do this much for me?!"

"I entreat you to trust in my store. I will apply all my humble art to please your sensibility," The painter assured with an amiable grin as he came up from a low bow. "You and your friend will look as beautiful as you are in real life."

Friend.

Akane stopped struggling.  
Friendship was not meant for her.

Still... The entire event reminded her of someone she had known as a child.

None of the children in the village wanted to play with her when she was young, because she was destined to fight in the ritual for selection by the Gods.  
And she had trained hard from a young age, not allowing her much time for friends.  
But there had been one girl that always sought her out.

A girl that for a fleeting, misguided period in her life she had considered a friend.  
A girl that forcefully dragged her into the lake to swim together even though Akane was terrified of the fish.  
A girl that took her along to play tricks on the other people in her village.

Akane was very different as a child.  
Her nephews and nieces used to call her crybaby Akane.  
But the girl she had regarded as her friend called her...

Suddenly Hanabi kissed her on the cheek. Akane looked over her shoulder in surprise.

"what?"

"Er? what, what?"

"Why did you kiss me?" Akane blushed.

Hanabi took a step backward over the tatami matting of the painter's shop because of the older girl's peculiar expression.  
"I'm sorry," She bowed. "It seemed like you were relenting, so I was happy. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

In spite of her casual apology, Hanabi's own cheeks turned red.  
But Akane did not notice.

When Hanabi kissed her, something had changed inside of the tall young woman.  
A warm uncomfortable sensation took residence in her heart.  
It was as if a crack had appeared in Akane's frozen heart.

That evening, while lying on her futon, Akane looked up at the wooden ceiling of her room at the inn and remembered that kiss, thinking about Hanabi.  
And that something did not disappear.

* * *

A few weeks later they took the train together to a hotspot in Hakone. Another of Hanabi's ideas to have fun.

Akane sat stiffly next to the younger girl in one of the dark blue cushioned luxurious wooden benches lined along the large windows of the dimly populated second class carriages.

She sneaked a look at the blackette from the outside view of the snow-covered rice fields and noticed her staring somberly at the green linoleum covered floor of the train carriage.  
Hanabi's burgundy kimono and white obi contrasted starkly with the blue of the bench's cushioning.

Akane wondered what her opponent was thinking about with such an ominous look as they neared their destination.

* * *

The hotel they were staying at was very beautiful.  
Quite the contrast with the traditional wooden, mostly single-story houses and the simple flattened earth road they had walked from the station to here.

Hidden between snow-covered elm trees it proudly exhibited the beauty and radiance of modern Japan with its fusion of traditional and western architecture.

Fujiya had just reopened after being rebuilt following a major fire in 83.  
Akane looked up at the grand luxurious white wooden two-story hotel, seemingly existing out of nothing but near story-height Yorkshire sash windows, towards the powdered roof with its blue - almost silver seeming - glazed clay kawara tiles.

'Hanabi is being quite the spendthrift, and squeezing my funds in the process,' she thought to herself as they walked into the building after exchanging their clogs for slippers.

She looked curiously at a bespectacled man of about forty in western dress sitting in one of the leather fauteuils in the lounge while the blackette registered them at the oaken desk under the cream plaster ceiling of the lobby.

For some reason, he looked familiar to her.

From the way his left arm was draped over the fauteuil's arm-support she could discern the shape of a what to most people would have been a well-concealed firearm underneath the breast pocket of his vest.  
Akane guessed he was a military officer.  
She could swear she had seen that round angry looking face with the short brown hair and the protruding eyes and nose in Fujisawa-Osaka when she was younger.

"Ojou-sama? May I accompany you to your room?" A bellhop not much older than she and Hanabi asked her with a deep bow.

Akane turned around and just barely noticed that her companion was regarding the man in the lounge with as peculiar an expression as she had.  
Then Hanabi nodded at the bellhop and followed him up the grand burgundy carpeted staircase to their room with the taller girl in tow.

Hanabi had the hotel recommended to her by the daughter of her employer.

"We are bound to have a good time because Kamomebata-san has good judgment in these things," She said as she shelved her belongings in the cabinet of their western styled room.

Akane thought she heard a pause before the last three words as she looked out of the almost room-wide and height window over the immense panorama of snow-covered Mount Hakone and Hayakawa river but it was probably just her imagination.

She had never been to a place like this.  
Always training, always preparing for the ritual of divine selection had left her no time for fun.  
She did not regret having had to follow her adversary here.

* * *

"That kimono looks good on you Akane-chan. I didn't know you owned such colorful dresses," Hanabi remarked with a shy smile that made the unnamed feeling in Akane grow.

The flaxen-haired girl looked down at her purple kimono with orange osmanthus and apricot flowers design while they entered the dressing room of the hotel's onsen and stood still on the shiny bamboo floor to undress.

It was a kimono she had bought with the purpose of going to a local festival in Fujiwara-Osaka town once, but she had changed her mind in the end and stayed home meditating.  
It was very warm, so it was well suited for the season. But it was quite warm in the hotel contrary to the train that had brought them here.

As Hanabi undressed to wash herself Akane quietly observed every movement she made.

The way her hair rustled as she took off her kimono.  
The scent it released.  
The bulging of her breasts.  
The smooth texture of her pale legs.  
The gentle movements her hand made as she placed her clothing in one of the woven bamboo baskets and took two towels with her to the bathing area.

Hanabi's casual acts were burned into Akane's heart without thinking.

She slowly removed her own kimono and inhaled the incensed air before she followed the blackette and seated herself beside her to wash.

Akane blushed as she averted her eyes from her companions naked body.  
Their current level of intimacy made her feel uncomfortable.

'You have been letting her get too close,' Akane scolded herself.  
'You may be indulging her out of self-interest, but she is still your enemy. You cannot let your guard down.'

She quickly rinsed herself with water she collected from the brass faucet in the wall into the wooden bucket at her feet and stimulated her acupressure points in order to relax.

When she got up from her stool Hanabi was waiting for her to enter the bath.  
They greeted the other customers with a friendly smile and carefully stepped over the grey stony bath-floor.

"Whoaa!"

Hanabi suddenly lost her footing and in surprise, she clung to Akane to save herself from falling.

Akane took her into her arms like a child. She felt the touch of Hanabi's skin on hers. Softness, warmth.  
It was hotter than a summer sun and burned and burned mercilessly through Akane's skin.

Another crack appeared in the frozen heart.

Hanabi's cheeks dyed crimson and she leaned her face on the shoulder of Akane as if she trusted her with her life.  
The pleasure numbed Akane's body through and through.

She wanted to respond. She wanted to hug her fiercely. But the next moment, shame and anger took hold of her.

'What is this?! How come this girl makes me feel like this?!'

Akane shook off Hanabi's embrace in a much rougher fashion than she had intended.  
A couple of middle-aged women, one of them a dainty red-headed European furtively observed her with shocked expressions.

Akane attempted to proceed to the other side of the basin, pretending nothing had happened, but she still felt ashamed of the disturbance.

"Akane-chan?"

The quiet, sad voice arrested her and made her look back.

Hanabi looked up at her like a puppy, with tears in her eyes, shaking in surprise and embarrassment.  
Akane's chest hurt. It was severely painful for some reason to see the blackette like that, even if she was her enemy and it was her goal to kill her in the ritual.

Hanabi's tears and look stung the older girl's heart.

"You are too hot. Leave me be," She muttered quietly, noticing the embarrassed looks of the other bathers.

She gradually immersed herself in the hot bath on the rocky floor of the basin and closed her eyes, aware of Hanabi sitting down next to her, careful not to touch her.

Akane didn't know how to apologize for her behavior. She felt too ashamed to talk about it.  
But it seemed like Hanabi was too scared to ask her why she had reacted so angry all of a sudden anyway.  
Akane peered through pinched eyelids and saw the smaller young woman wipe her eyes and lay back with her eyes closed.

The water was very relaxing and after a while, Akane, feeling her earlier unease subside, ventured to peer at Hanabi again and was happy to see the girl seemed to be enjoying herself.

The water was very soothing and sitting here outside under the wooden roof over the hotspot basin with the snow gently falling down at the foot of Mount Hakone to the left of them was a beautiful and magical experience.

A cute sound escaped from Hanabi's lips.

"Ah! This is so wonderful after having spent the entire week walking around and serving people," She whispered.

Akane saw her cheeks had grown red and slowly closed her own eyes.  
The water was easing the anxiety she had felt earlier. She wondered when the last time was that she had felt so calm.

Her mind pulled her back to a time when she was not being so rigorously trained yet.  
She remembered how she was sitting idly on the beach at low tide with the girl she had once considered her friend picking sea snails from the puddles of water left by the receding sea and sucking the meat out.

Then she remembered something else.

She never knew where Amane lived. The girl had never told her.  
It seemed she had always managed to derail the subject whenever Akane tried to ask her.  
And that day was the last time Akane had seen her.

Even though she was the only friend the flaxen-haired girl had ever had.  
Even though she had made her so happy.  
Even though it always made her feel special when Amane had called her...

"Akane-chan?"

Hanabi's uneasy voice pulled Akane back to the real world.

"what's wrong?" the younger girl asked with a concerned look.

Akane realized she was feeling agitated again.  
The awareness that Hanabi had been watching her made her feel more agitated.

'Has she noticed my thoughts? I cannot allow Hanabi to notice. Absolutely not. If Hanabi noticed...'

Just thinking about it, Akane shivered.

'Because I should not show weakness to enemies?  
Probably, but that is not the only reason.'

Hanabi scratched her head in wonder.

"If you are feeling dizzy we should get out of the water," She tried.  
Maybe you haven't eaten well this morning. They say eating beef helps against faintness."

"I'm alright. Thank you for your care," Akane smiled and nodded to ease her companion's mind.  
"I was just thinking of something that happened in the factory this week."

"You seemed angry," Hanabi quietly observed.

Akane closed her eyes again.

"The overseers are very ruff to the girls who can't make the daily quota. It makes me want to interfere sometimes, but it is such a daily occurrence it hardly seems worth causing trouble over."

It was not a lie.

The way some of the other girls in the factory were sometimes treated had made Akane wonder whether she shouldn't speak up if things went too far some day.

Hanabi watched her with a gaping mouth.

"You really care about other people don't you Akane. I am the same.  
I can't see people in pain. The daughter of the meat shop's owner often comes to me with her problems and I try to help her to the best of my abilities."

Akane looked aside and returned her adversary's smile. She could see Hanabi do that. Give advice to a friend in need.  
Then she closed her eyes again and leaned back in the bath, listening to the silence around her.

'That's how we look to others,' She reflected. 'We look like any two friends engaged in casual conversation.  
But the smiles and the joyful conversation are all lies.  
It's just a game of deceit.

We are two girls who are going to kill each other. Yes, this is a nice time. But I cannot allow myself to be distracted from my goal.  
No matter how friendly we get, I will kill Hanabi Yasuroaka at the ritual of divine selection.'

* * *

Both young woman tremendously enjoyed their stay in Hakone, but on their journey back to Tokyo on the train, Hanabi assured Akane that she didn't have any more such expensive pass-times in mind. She had just wanted to go to an onsen with a friend for once in her life.

The older girl was pleased her funds would be spared further extravagances, but secretly she enjoyed her outings with Hanabi more than she would admit even to herself.

She sat with a stern expression looking at the shabby houses of the villages between Hakone and Tokyo, reminiscing about her youth, and fell asleep just a few kilometers before they arrived.

* * *

Narumi Kanai sat smartly dressed in a grey vest and pantaloons, reading his newspaper and drinking a glass of port, in one of the luxurious leather fauteuils overlooking the staircase to the beautiful western style rooms of one of Hakone's most lauded hotels.

He greatly enjoyed the drink.  
It was one of the more praiseworthy products introduced in his country in the last few decennia.

He smiled in delight as he poured another draught and the sour taste of the grapes and the touch of sweetness flowed into his throat while he read about the failed military uprising in Portugal.

Movement caught his eye as the man he was here to provide instructions from his Daimyo slowly walked up the stairway to the second floor.  
Narumi observed the older man's grotesque eyes and pronounced nose with an amused smile as he turned the corner, reached the balcony and walked up the stairs on the right.

The arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection patiently finished his newspaper and glass of port.  
Then he folded the newspaper and placed it next to the empty glass on the bamboo wooden table beside him.

He casually walked up the red-carpeted staircase, unnoticed even by the lobby clerks.  
Blending in had always been one of his many talents. It was a great benefit of looking as bland as a person can look.

The young man leisurely walked through the hallway on the second floor with the oak panel walls and stopped at the door to the room the Colonel was staying in after looking left and right to see whether nobody else was around.  
He quickly produced a neatly folded envelope from his pocket and slid it under the door, knocking two times.

Then he walked back as if nothing had happened and descended the broad stairs.

* * *

Within fifteen minutes Narumi Kanai was standing on the platform of Hakone station waiting to take the next train in pursuit of his prey.  
When the train arrived he calmly took his seat on one of the wooden benches in the third wagon.

Nothing betrayed the excitement he was feeling in anticipation of his meeting with Akane Minigawa, scourge of men and lesser women alike.

Nothing but the satisfied, relaxed smile the arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection wore as he watched the blue winter sky through the rattling window of the train to Shimbashi Station in Tokyo.

* * *

End credits: Emily Barker And The Red Clay Halo: Pause

watch?v=Dt4R_n8ZWQM


	2. Chapter 2

Akane was walking home from another Sunday spent with Hanabi. The blackette greatly enjoyed Tokyo's cultural life and took Akane along to all kinds of performances.

After they had enjoyed themselves at a theater or sitting at the local teahouse they would go to Hanabi's room to talk about home, about work and the books the younger girl had read.  
One rainy Sunday they spent entirely inside, folding origami.

Hanabi knew a lot about books and western literature especially.

The pay she got from working at the meat shop and in the nabe restaurant in the evenings wasn't that meaningful, but the employment did provide her with a room she had completely to herself on the third floor of the modern building and she usually shared her meals with her employers family.

Hanabi had told Akane that since the older girl had written to the arbitrator to request a prolonged stay in Tokyo for both of them she had received some funding from her parents which was amply sufficient for their outings.

In the evenings after their dates, when Akane would go home to eat and before Hanabi went downstairs for dinner, the blackette sat down and employed mesmerism on herself.  
It was a new science from Europe.

One day, out of curiosity, Akane had asked to stay for a little while.  
Feeling herself grow quiet just from watching the rituals the younger girl performed on herself on the floor of her room with the round western table and high chairs she carefully observed how Hanabi's hands seemed to float over her own body.

The girl never touched herself, nimbly moving her hands at less than an inch distance over her recumbent form.  
Lying there, all innocent, peaceful and pure, Hanabi inspired more reverence in Akane than any of the sensei her parents had hired to teach her.

On her way home Akane didn't see many people on the streets that were usually so crowded in the daytime. The inhabitants of the rows of wooden houses were hidden from sight behind the now-closed closely latticed facades on the ground floor or the narrowly barred long windows in the light-beige earthwork walls of the second floor.

In the late evenings, certain areas of Tokyo didn't look that different from Fujisawa-Osaka town.  
But in spite of the low temperatures of the season, Tokyo seemed to Akane a warmer place to live than her hometown.

As she turned a corner of the street bordered by a young elm tree she saw two men talking at a fish merchant's house.

She recognized one of the men, a short burly man who seemed close to his thirties with short black hair, a mischievous bias in his features, and pronounced lips.

He was one of the men she had knocked down on the night she had planned to take Hanabi back home with her.

As she passed them by the burakumin seemed to recognize her too, to her dismay, and he nodded politely to her in his loosely fitting dark-blue western-style suit.

Akane nodded curtly and walked on, annoyed at the man's daring to greet her as an equal.

* * *

A few weeks later Akane and Hanabi were posing for their painting again amidst the various colorful family portraits positioned around the bare cedar walls of the painter's shop as advertisements. They watched the people passing outside the open shop front without moving their heads.

Hanabi once joked they might pass for a still life if they were fruit. Akane thought she might become a still death if she had to sit like that every day.

Her teachers used to have her do stuff like that. She could stand still for days and nights if she had to, but she absolutely loathed having to do so.

Having gotten tired of sitting for the quizzical old man nearly every Sunday so far was one of the reasons they had decided to go to Hakone that time.

Today sitting down with Hanabi standing behind her proved less of a nuisance.  
Akane had become accustomed to having the other girl with her every Sunday.

Hanabi was kind and well-behaved like she had always seemed on the rare occasions when Akane had seen her walking in the packed earthen streets of Fujisawa-Osaka.

The blackette's calm, timid way of speaking soothed Akane.

* * *

In the afternoon, they went to see a shinpa play in crowded Asakusa Rokku with its high waving banners in blue and white and red and its paper lanterns everywhere.

The performance was in the recently built Kabuki-za, a large three-story western style building - neo-classical according to Hanabi - with pale plastered walls, a wide pediment on the roof, a brick fence, and a protruding blue tiled entrance hall with tall elm trees on either side.

The play was a drama about a forbidden love.

Hanabi was very excited about the play. She said it would feature the first performance in Tokyo of a very talented actress Akane quickly forgot the name of.  
It was unusual, she thought, to see a female performer in a play. But she had to admit the actress was very skilled and captivated the audience's attention like a veteran.

Hanabi seemed to be very knowledgeable about theater. She knew the names of all kinds of actors and playwrights Akane had no interest in. The flaxen-haired young woman sat stiffly next to her companion in their plain high wooden chairs, feeling as if she was back at school in Fujisawa-Osaka, and watched the younger woman as the latter cried at all the sad parts.

Hanabi looked pretty in her green western dress.

She had wanted Akane to buy a western dress to go to the theater with her, but the older girl had adamantly refused on account of the trouble of putting on all of those underdresses and had made mocking, derisive comments about the blackette's ridiculous modernist obsession.  
Hanabi had looked disappointed and hurt and almost won Akane over, but in the end, the flaxen-haired girl scolded herself to not let her adversary sway her so easily.

When the play ended Akane grudgingly said some comforting words to Hanabi since she seemed a little depressed over the story.

It was nice to do these things together.  
It was something Akane was not used to.  
But that was all.

This was just a diversion. A temporary break from their inevitable confrontation at the ritual of divine selection.

After they took tea at a nearby teahouse Hanabi announced that she wanted to visit the Ryounkaku together. It took some time before she managed to convince Akane that the sight from a sixty-seven-meter high building would be worth the trouble of going up and that it would be perfectly safe to be pulled up by elevator, but eventually, the taller girl gave in.

Akane felt intimidated looking up the octagonal twelve-story building, but she supposed being built from brick it probably was very solid and strong.

"It is beautiful isn't it?" Hanabi smiled as they passed underneath the great white plastered neoclassical arc over the entrance hall.

She had caught a free entrance ticket when they threw them from the tower as a promotion stunt before it opened last year, but she paid for Akane's because she was here on Hanabi's invitation.

When they arrived at the elevator with its red wooden doors Akane managed to frighten the young elevator assistant with her stern insistence that he assured her they would not be dropped by accident, which made Hanabi finally burst out laughing when they reached the tenth floor. Akane tried to look dignified, but she couldn't help smiling at the amusement of the otherwise so demure and gloomy looking blackette.

From the tenth floor, they took the stairs to the white painted wooden observatory tower on the top floor.  
The view was more than worth the trouble of going up the towering structure.

Standing behind the green iron cast painted railing around the top of the tower Akane and Hanabi could see for miles around the city.

Hanabi talked with a friendly woman in white and yellow kimono who was curious about her dress while her amazed flaxen-haired companion took in the view over Asakusa park.

She saw the little island of Asakusa park in between the two large ponds with the now empty wisteria trees everywhere. She saw theater street's bustle of flags, paper lanterns, and performers on one side of the lake and the holy splendor of the Buddhist Sensoji temple and its grounds on the other side.

She saw the rows of brothels and parading courtesans of Shin Yoshiwara.

Further away she saw the multitudes of buildings, districts and houses of the capital spread out before her eyes and finally give way to the horizon where she thought she could even discern the faint outline of Mount Fuji in the distance.

It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of Akane's lifetime.

"Amazing!" Hanabi exclaimed next to her.  
Akane tried to control her excitement and calmly observed her companion.

"Isn't it?" The latter inquired with mouth agape. "We are really standing on top of the second highest building in the entire world. We are living in a time when people can build things like this and look out over all creation like Gods."

The blackette turned her eyes away from her companion's face and continued to look astonished and overcome at the city beneath her feet.

Akane couldn't stop looking at her.

The light in Hanabi's periwinkle eyes…  
The wind playing with her short black hair...  
The beauty of her pale skin...

"Hey, can I ask you something?" She said to the smaller girl's surprise.  
"Why did you come here? Why did you seek to work at that place? Why do you associate with those creatures that deliver the meat?"

Hanabi quietly looked at her for a few moments.  
"You think it's strange that I speak to Burakumin?" She frowned.

The blackette grew moody and looked down at her hands that held the green bar of the iron-cast railing around the observation platform.

"All of my life my parents have prepared me for our battle.  
I never got to do fun things. I never had any friends.  
Everyone always avoided me, because I am unclean, tainted by my fate to kill or die at the ritual.

The only person whom I knew lived a life similar to mine, the only person I could feel related to was you.  
And you were my enemy."

Akane watched the downcast girl next to her, feeling like Hanabi was suddenly making her see her life in a new light.

"I wanted to experience life as it should be experienced by a girl my age. And paradoxically, the only way I felt I could do so was by living among those who are similarly shunted."

"I understand now..." Akane finally replied with a stern grimace. "But we are not Burakumin," She turned on the young woman next to her.  
"We are Samurai. You are polluting and degrading yourself by working there."

Hanabi seemed distracted, looking far into the distance with a long face.

Akane swallowed and felt that she might perhaps show some pity after all.

"But since we are to fight each other soon I won't begrudge you wanting to spend this time like ordinary girls our age.  
It is enjoyable to live like this," She blushed slightly.

Hanabi turned around to Akane and smiled gratefully.  
"Thank you for your kindness," She bowed.

It was nice to be able to cheer the younger girl up. To have that power.  
Or was it Hanabi who had the power to make Akane feel that way?

Akane was a warrior, equal to any man trained as a samurai.  
Hanabi was different. She was small, soft, gentle.

Her softness could feel suffocating to Akane. Her mood swings could shrink Akane's world to where it encompassed only Hanabi.  
Akane was interested in that power.

"So you enjoyed yourself at the theater? You did not look like it," The younger woman pouted as they left the great tower, walking over the grey gravel path leading to it.  
"But I'm happy if you did, though I'll do my best to find something you like better next time." She gently smiled.

Akane felt a thump inside of her. It was an odd, disorienting sensation.  
When she came home she sat down and meditated to purify her mind and body.

* * *

Narumi Kanai once more read the telegram that had been delivered to the inn he was staying at the day before.  
He stood frowning in his dark-blue and white checkered Kimono with white obi at the entrance to a wooden three-story nabe restaurant with paper lanterns hanging from the roof over the second floor.

"Meeting Iroha Imahan restaurant Tokyo six evening tomorrow"

The order - or what might as well be understood as an order - came from the son of his Daimyo, Atsuya Kirishima.

Narumi had no idea why Atsuya wanted to meet with him or why he wanted to meet here of all places, but it certainly seemed like an opportunity to work out his annoyance at what he had been observing.

He changed his clogs for slippers in the genkan and followed his hostess who was dressed in a yellow kimono decorated with gardenia flowers to the table where Atsuya was already seated.

Both men greeted with a bow and after the hostess departed to bring the sake he had ordered Narumi sat down at the table on the straw-matted tatami floor opposite his friend and ticket to the fulfillment of his ambitions.

"Please share these kushiyaki with me," Atsuya offered, waving a hand towards the skewers that were being grilled over a charcoal-filled brazier sunk in the middle of their table.

Narumi smiled at the future Emperor who was sitting in front of him in his dark-teal and white kimono decorated with a pair of kingfishers and helped himself to one of the beef skewers.

"I came to Ginza today to buy a yukata for my wedding. So since you were here I decided it would be a nice opportunity to share a meal," The younger man smiled.

"Thank you for the invitation," Narumi bowed.

"After all, we have both been so busy lately we've had little time to talk," Atsuya continued in his lazy drawl.  
"For you, part of your responsibilities will end come summer."

"I will gladly continue to take on more work when I have finished that assignment," Narumi smiled and bowed.  
"The workload we have taken upon ourselves will only increase after your wedding."

He gestured to the hostess who had been waiting at a short distance to come and serve him his cup of sake and answered her bow.

"Would you like to start the meal?" Atsuya asked.

"Yes. Thank you," Narumi bowed.

"Then please serve us the main course, hostess," The younger man nodded, receiving a deep bow from the woman.

"Are you curious to see how she handles herself in this occupation?" Narumi chuckled after sipping his drink.

His host watched the other customers seated at their respective tables on the green tatami floor and the pine wooden walls of the restaurant for a minute in silence.  
"I wouldn't really care if they sent someone else to serve us," He finally answered in his soft sluggish voice.  
"I hadn't realized this was the restaurant you had told me she worked in," He lied.  
"I just heard the food was good here so I wanted to try it."

The men quietly ate the last of the kushiyaki and drank their sake.

Atsuya saw Hanabi demurely approach them with a black ironware pot accompanied by a smiling blonde pig-tailed girl who was balancing tea and eggs in blue-and-white pottery on a bamboo tray.  
"How are they behaving here in Tokyo?" He asked the arbitrator.

"Exemplary," His guest smiled.  
"As I told you in my letters, they have both been working hard in their respective professions. They undertake to attend plays and such, but neither girl goes anywhere without the other. I have surveyed them closely. I can assure you if either of them is planning to give us trouble I will not allow them a chance to do so."

"Good," Atsuya smiled. "I know I can rely on you, Kanai-kun. Thank you for your care."

"Thank you for your praise," Narumi returned his friend's bow and like him, he directed his attention to Hanabi and the girl whose name he had learned was Noriko.

"May we serve you, okyaku-sama?" The latter bowed.

"Please take care of us," Atsuya nodded.

The men quietly observed how Hanabi placed the ironware pot over the brazier and waited for Noriko to serve each their tea and placed the bowls with the eggs beside them on the table before the young women left to get the ingredients for the gyu-nabe.

"She is very attractive," Narumi smiled cheerfully. "And very well-behaved."

"She is indeed," Atsuya agreed after lifting his cup of tea and taking a draught that half-emptied it.  
"And Minigawa-san is working in a bamboo-basket factory I believe you said?"

"Yes. She is one of the most productive women working there.  
As we should expect, the environment hasn't done anything to blemish her great beauty."  
Narumi, finally beginning to understand the reason for his friend's visit shrewdly threw the bait.

"As you say, I would not expect anything to be able to tarnish the flower of Fujiwara town," Atsuya responded with a meaningful look. "To have a woman of such accomplishment as one's bride would be an honor to a statesman."

"I quite agree. There is no other woman so fitting," The arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection smiled, parting the corners of his mouth further than before.

His eyes gleamed behind his glasses as he watched Hanabi silently smear fat into the black pot in the middle of the table after she had brought the tray with the beef and Noriko the tray with the vegetables for their meal.

Atsuya blankly regarded his friend while sipping his tea again until Noriko had placed all the blue-and-white bowls with the mushrooms, negi, tofu and chrysanthemum leaves on the table.

"Might we get another bottle of that excellent sake?" He smiled.

The girl bowed deeply and departed.

Hanabi deftly arranged the meat in the nabe pot with a few pieces of negi for flavoring and waited patiently with a friendly smile and her eyes cast down at the meat for it to begin frying.  
When the meat began to sizzle in the pan and the sweet fragrance of beef began to spread she turned every piece of meat with her chopsticks as it was being cooked.

"Since we appear to understand one another on the previous subject I will certainly appeal to my father concerning your continued employment," Atsuya smiled while their waitress poured miso over the meat and started adding more negi, tofu and finally the mushrooms to the black pot.

Noriko brought the new bottle of sake with a bow and poured a cup for each young man before leaving to serve another customer.

"I will not disappoint you, Kirishima-san," Narumi bowed with a pleased smile before enjoying his drink.

At last Hanabi added the chrysanthemum leaves on top of the nabe and when they were cooked tenderly she bowed deeply.  
"Please, enjoy your meal," She smiled before leaving to serve another customer.

Atsuya helped himself to a piece of meat which he dipped into the bowl of egg in front of him, delighting in the taste of the mixture.  
When he first tasted beef as a child he had been disgusted, but as a teenager, he had visited a nabe restaurant with his father and since then he couldn't get enough.

"To continue our conversation.  
In particular, I know my father wants a reliable man here in Tokyo to coordinate communications. My father has been very pleased with you in your current capacity as our liaison and we plan to give you greater responsibility in our future venture than we have agreed upon before."

"I am grateful that my efforts please you," The arbitrator bowed.

Listening to his young friend's lazy voice explain the nature of his future involvement in their coup Narumi carefully picked a piece of mushroom from the nabe pot with his chopsticks.

Acutely aware of Hanabi stealthily observing him and his companion as she served the other customers in the restaurant he was thoroughly pleased with what he had learned earlier.

He smiled behind his glasses at the young woman, laughing internally at the irony of Atsuya Kirishima coming to Tokyo to ask him to do what he had been planning to since the moment Akane pleaded for him to allow her to retrieve the blackette in his stead.

* * *

Winter was coming to an end and flower gazing season had begun.

When Hanabi brought up the idea, Akane had both anticipated and dreaded it.  
Like Hanabi, she had never been to a flower gazing party.  
She liked the idea, but she didn't want to stand out amongst a bunch of people as someone who didn't know how to act.

Sitting in Hanabi's room while the younger girl was downstairs making tea Akane was making herself very nervous.  
Her eyes wandered around the room, looking at Hanabi's tansu. From the portable wooden cabinet, her eyes went to a book-filled open cupboard. And from that one to another book-filled cupboard.

Akane got up and put her pointer finger to the spines of the books. Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Lily Braun, Anton Chekov... Akane read all kinds of foreign names.

She saw a series of magazines on the lower shelf and pulled one out.

"Myojo," She read over a picture of a woman and a lily on the cover. At least it was a Japanese magazine. She flipped through the pages and saw that it was a literary magazine containing mainly poetry.

"I am aware you are waiting," She read aloud. "You are not alone in the field. I too wait to gather those roses you plucked for me. The day shortens before we can act upon our desire. That sweet moment I cannot offer you at the time of your craving. But shortly thereafter I promise to please you greatly."

Hanabi opened the western style wooden door to her room and came in with the tea.

Akane turned around in fright.  
"I humbly apologize for looking among your belongings," She bowed low in embarrassment.

"I don't mind, Akane-chan," The blackette smiled amiably as she placed the tea on the table.

"You can read any book you like whenever I'm not here. But I keep these magazines in a certain order so to better remember where to find the poems I like," Hanabi said while taking the magazine from the flustered flaxen-haired girl's hand and shelving it among the others.  
"So if you are interested in reading one of them I prefer you to ask me for it, so I can put it back in my preferred order."

"Thank you. I will," Akane replied, moderately amused that her otherwise so demure adversary was now scolding her, however kindly she was doing it.

After the incident, they quietly took their tea together.

"So are you looking forward to it as much as I am? Our Hanami?" The blackette timidly inquired after a while.

Akane grimaced.

"You want to do it too, don't you, Akane-chan?" Hanabi leaned closer with anxious eyes.

"I do," The older girl finally confessed. "But I am not looking forward to showing off our awkwardness to the dozens of people around us."

"Oh!" Hanabi exclaimed. "Are you anxious about that? Don't worry Akane-chan. I know a park where we can have a party with little chance of other people nearby. At least..." Hanabi continued apprehensively, "If that is what you want?"

Akane thanked her with a polite bow and told her she would be fine having a small party among themselves without having to worry about appearing strange to others for not knowing how to act.

Hanabi frowned and said she hoped they would be doing things right, but that it would be alright if they just took a bento and sake with them.

* * *

On the day of their hanami, the blackette had pulled Akane along among the groups of people gathering all over the city until they finally arrived at Fukagawa park.

They walked along the pines and hydrangea's along the lake at the heart of the east side of the park.  
Akane noted how little people there were in this beautiful park compared the crowds flocking among the cherry trees in the rest of the city.

"Nobody ever thinks of coming to Fukagawa to have a good time. And I had a feeling most of the people who live here would forget about their park come spring, because there are almost no cherry trees here," Hanabi breathed as she pulled on Akane's arm and led the taller girl in her blue kimono with peony blossom decoration through the cluster of trees the west side of the park consisted of.

"Almost." She concluded with a smile as they stood gazing upon three wide cherry trees with clouds of pink-tinted white blossoms on their branches in a small open space surrounded by pines.

With the sound of buntings and robins as their entertainment, they sat down on the ground.

In spite of the peaceful surrounding, Akane felt tense.

"Kamomebata-san told me she remembered having seen cherry trees here when she came here for a walk one day," Hanabi said quietly as she unpacked their bento.  
"I made things I have never tried before so I hope you like them.  
I know you have a refined palate.  
It always pleases me to hear you enjoy my cooking.  
Please enjoy this humble meal," she bowed while presenting the food she had prepared for them.

Akane picked out a sandwich.  
"What's this?" she frowned.

"It's a sandwich with pickled beef. It's supposed to very wholesome."

There were other things like that in the bento.  
They were all very tasty and the taste of the beef complimented the sake Akane had bought for their hanami.

She observed how Hanabi quietly watched the cherry blossoms on the trees and the buntings hoping from branch to branch in her yellow kimono with Japanese roses.

Akane wondered why the sight made her feel so uncomfortable.  
She turned her attention to the bamboo basket Hanabi had brought the bento in.

"Is that one of yours?" Hanabi asked when she noticed.

Akane looked up.  
The blackette seemed a little drunk. She had drunk a lot of the sake.

"No," she frowned. "We don't make this kind."

Akane remembered what had happened earlier in the week and her face fell.

"What's wrong?" Hanabi asked.

The flaxen-haired girl sighed while pouring another cup of sake for herself.

"A girl in the factory killed herself Tuesday," She spoke, staring at the cup in her hands which she had neatly folded in her lap.  
"She was a little red-headed girl from Nerima.  
She was never able to meet the daily quota and always got disciplined for it by the overseers.  
Wednesday morning they found her dead in the dormitory. She seemed to have poisoned herself."

Akane heard Hanabi weeping and turned her gaze toward her.  
The blackette wept easily anyway, but she was clearly drunk now.

"Poor girl," Hanabi muttered.

"On top of that, her family is still indebted to the factory owner for paying her journey and her lodgings. Now they will also be charged for the burial," Akane continued.

"poor little thing. In relieving herself, she unintentionally dropped a burden on others," Hanabi wept while hiding her face.  
"Did you know her?" she asked after calming down a little.

Akane looked at the girl next to her, who in her drunken state was overcome with grief for her poor colleague.

"Not well. I tend to keep to myself anyway and since I don't sleep in the dormitories I'm not close to any of the other girls."

Akane paused and watched her grieving companion wipe her eyes.  
She felt a sudden desire to hold Hanabi and protect her from the world.

"A few of the older girls went and talked to the overseers. Telling them that this happened because they were too harsh on the slower girls and that they should ask them to spur those weaker girls on if need be," She said, gazing at the cherry blossoms in the trees before them.  
"That made the overseers go easier for now, but I doubt it will last."

They sat quietly after that, listening to the sounds of the wind rustling the trees and the songs of the birds.

Something hit Akane on the shoulder.  
Hanabi had leaned against her and fell asleep with her head on her shoulder.  
Like a girl resting in the arms of her mother, innocently trusting in the goodness of the world.

Akane suddenly thought: 'Would this Hanabi ever betray me?  
No. Hanabi is as innocent as a sheep. I know that now.'

Hanabi's soft and white neck and round bosom were moving up and down with her breathing.  
Her soft hair. Her fragrant scent. The warmth of her skin.  
It disturbed Akane's heart.

Something flared up inside of her, hotter than any flame.  
'Calm down. You have to calm down.'

Akane tried to use the acupressure points of massage to relax.  
But her fingers strayed. They had a desire in them. They pulled towards the body of Hanabi.

'What do you want? Do you want to touch her breasts? Do you want to caress her cheek? Do you want to embrace her?  
Why does this girl burn me with her touches?!'

'Do you want to kiss the sleeping demon?!'

An eerie distorted voice from inside frightened Akane.

It was the voice that had comforted her after she had been left alone by Amane all those years ago. The voice that had frozen her heart and told her to live only towards one purpose.

It was the voice of Sarashi.

Akane tried stimulating her acupressure points again. That made her calm down at last.  
But then she started to reflect.

Akane remembered the time Hanabi held onto her and cried in her embrace because she was moved by the play they were watching.  
She remembered the time she was kissed on the cheek by Hanabi.

Maybe she was starting to consider the blackette as something else besides her adversary in the ritual of divine self.

It had taken her so much effort to finally silence Sarashi.  
Akane dreaded that cold, cruel voice.  
That is why she decided to be more carefully from now on.

* * *

Nevertheless, Akane allowed Hanabi to sleep in her embrace until she woke from her drunkenness.

She accompanied her to the meat shop and walked alone back to the inn where she stayed through the crowded streets filled with pedestrians, rickshaws, and carriages.

She always walked Hanabi to her lodgings if she could.  
The Burakumin she had fought when she first came here were only there to deliver the meat of the animals they had slaughtered, but these creatures couldn't be trusted and the area the meat shop was located in had a shady reputation.

Akane looked dreamily up ahead at the powerlines and counted the poles until she arrived at her inn.

She changed her clogs for slippers at the genkan and walked up the stairs to the third floor.

When she arrived at her own lodgings something made her feel uneasy.  
She couldn't tell what it was, but she was sure something was out of the ordinary.

She carefully closed the sliding door after entering her room.  
Lighting a lamp she sensed a movement behind her and turned around.

Her assailant was faster and jumped aside as she struck at him.

She realized he had been hiding in the tokonoma. She was really becoming too careless.

With a shock, she recognized the arbitrator's face and ceased her attack.  
She felt the man's cold dark eyes observing her form through his glasses.

"Akane Minagawa." He breathed. He had the manner of a bird of prey.  
"I apologize for my intrusion," Narumi Kanai bowed. "But why always so defensive? I am here on behalf of your Daimyo. A little respect is in place I think."

Akane hated the man. She hated his quiet, reserved demeanor. She hated his function as arbitrator of her life.  
She hated the way he had always looked at her with that complacent smile of his.

As if the taint she bore as a participant in the ritual for divine selection made him lust after her.

As if what should be abhorrent to any normal person was attractive to him.

"My apologies," Akane returned with a stiff bow. "I find myself often in neighborhoods that are frequented by criminals. I had assumed one of them had followed me here to attack me."

She saw the light of the oil lamp she had placed on her tansu glint of his glasses and took a step back.

"That is true," Narumi smiled. "You have both developed a taste for filth. It's peculiar how high-born women such as yourselves seem to flee your proper positions to seek employment in the baser professions these days."

Akane gritted her teeth at the insulting insinuations.

Narumi looked into her eyes.

"I have come here to watch you. Because even though your letter was very well formulated I had my doubts as to the wisdom and real reason for your continued stay here.  
Tell me, what is the real reason you have not brought Uzume Gozen home as you set out to do when you went searching for her?

You are meant to kill each other in a few months, yet you promenade around town as if you were dear friends.  
You seem to be enjoying yourselves. It is... Curious," Narumi smiled.

"This just a game, we are just passing time. I am studying my opponent, exactly as I stated in my letter!" Akane spat.

"So you did. But you still have not answered my question."

The arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection looked Akane in the eye. But she did not flinch.

This was a battle of minds. He was trying to gauge her. Trying to see what she was thinking. But she would not let this man into her mind.  
She could never allow a man like that to know her inner thoughts.

He stared at her hard and long.  
When the battle ended she felt empty.

"I am here to tell you that the Daimyo's son has a preference," Narumi continued with a grin. "It would be advantageous if the Kirishima family were to be mated to such a strong woman, able to produce strong heirs.  
A strong woman with a beautiful body..."

Before Akane could react her interlocutor had closed the distance between them and twisted her left arm behind her body while sweeping her leg, bringing her to the floor.

He trapped her right arm under her body and leaned down on her using his weight to hold her down.

Akane furiously wrestled to escape.

"Akane Minigawa. You who used to feel so much pleasure seeing the frustrated looks on the faces of women whose men couldn't help glance at the beauty of the tainted Amaterasu Gozen," Narumi lecherously whispered into her left ear. "Don't tell me you are ignorant of how these games are played?"

Akane swallowed in fear as Narumi grabbed her breast under her clothing.  
She felt outraged, humiliated.  
Involuntarily she thought of Hanabi, feeling warm because of the vision of the girl produced by her mind.  
Her heart beat faster and faster as her assailant continued to twist her arm and fondle her breast.

"Touching you feels like pleasuring a corpse," He whispered. "It's like a forbidden desire.  
Tell me Akane. How do you feel about the fact that the taint of your fate can only be cleansed after spilling another's blood?"

She hated him! Choking and gasping she sought for any chance to push him off and take her dagger from the storage cabinet, to cut off his hand, or perhaps even to cut off her breast.  
She hated his touch her body so much it restricted her reason.

Then suddenly he let go and pushed her down with his foot when she tried to get up with him.

She was lying on the floor, seething in fury while Narumi smiled triumphantly at her.

"I'll give you a warning, beautiful Akane: be careful and don't let your guard down or worse might befall you than this."

With a movement as souple as a dancer, he slid open the shoji and leisurely walked out of the room and down the stairs, leaving her behind with a bitter sensation and a lot of frustration, feeling violated to the center of her being.

Why had she not brought Hanabi back to her family to await the ritual for divine selection?  
Akane knew the answer.

It was in the sad expressions Hanabi made that made her want to pull the girl into her embrace.  
It was in the cute shape of her nose.  
It was in the insecure smile that made Akane's heart throb.  
It was in the pain in Akane's chest whenever she marked the remaining time left to them.

Whenever Hanabi smiled at her, that something inside Akane grew warmer and warmer.  
Every time they spent time together that something grew hotter and hotter.

When they had dinner together.  
When they walked in the rain together.  
When Hanabi bandaged her fingers after Akane had cut herself during the work in the factory.  
It was a dull pain and it became bigger and bigger.

* * *

The following Sunday they went to another play together.

When they took their seats in the row of wooden chairs a young man and woman who had been walking behind them suddenly looked at Hanabi and hesitated.

"Isn't that the girl from the meat shop?" The woman whispered.  
"You are right," Her friend answered. "Hey, let's go sit in the back. I don't want to sit next to Burakumin."

Akane felt something grow hot inside of her again.  
The couple walked away from them towards the row of seats behind them.  
She was about to stand up when she felt a shaking hand on her wrist.

"Please don't," Hanabi looked at her with pleading eyes. "Thank you for your care," She bowed. "But, it would only be bad publicity for the shop."

"We are not Burakumin!" Akane whispered fiercely.

"Does it matter? In a few months time, I will die, and you will kill me. No Burakumin is more tainted by death than we are."

Akane saw tears forming in Hanabi's eyes and sat down, not wanting to press the matter.  
But as she glanced at the blackette during the performance she heard the voice of Sarashi scold her.

'What does it matter what they think of the little demon? In a few months time, you will kill her, just as she said. Why treat this relationship as more than it is? Friendship is not meant for you! You know that. This girl is no different from Amane. If you wouldn't have to kill her she would desert you eventually. So stop treating her as if she is a friend. She is your goal. She is the fulfillment of all our hard work. And after her death, you will become the wife of a very powerful man.'

Akane didn't want to listen to the voice that had become a horror to her after having saved her in her youth.  
She applied the relaxation techniques of acupressure and gradually felt herself calm down.

The play was another romance. Akane did not care for it, but it was OK for her if Hanabi was pleased.  
Her eyes drifted to the enormous elaborate chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling and the people watching from the balconies.

By the end of the play, Hanabi had started crying again and Akane felt something hot gently touching her fingertips.  
Hanabi was holding her hand and a slightly warm and soft feeling was transmitted through the skin.

Sarashi whispered to Akane again.

'Who are you Akane?  
You are a warrior. You are bred for combat. You are raised to bring fortune to your family. That is why your family trained you. To be victorious in the ritual of divine selection.  
Everything you have been taught has been for the purpose of winning. But you are already winning.  
This pleasurable time is a present from the Gods for your dedication.

So why are you feeling like this? Is it because something has been stirring in your heart?  
Wipe it out. It is unacceptable.'

Sarashi tried to freeze Akane' s heart again with the coldness of her arguments, but it was of no use.  
A surging heat had taken hold there.

Akane's nail bit into the white skin of her lower arm.

'What am I doing? What should I do? Why am I so disturbed?'

Her chest heaved as Hanabi cried next to her.

And that something inside of her grew bigger.

* * *

After watching the play they drank tea together in a local teahouse.

Hanabi was talking enthusiastically about the play. She was moved by the lovers of the story.

Akane watched her with a smile.  
Her black hair shone brightly in the sunlight entering the room through the fusuma. it was really beautiful.

"I think they are similar to us."

"What?" Akane asked in surprise, nearly spilling her cup.

"Because their lives are also dictated by those around them. Just like ours. It is not the same of course, but there are similarities."

The feeling became larger inside Akane. It ached and burned.

"And you are kind and handsome, like the hero of the story."

That sounded strange to Akane.  
She had always been complimented for her strength, for her beauty, for her killer instinct, for her coldness. This was the first time anyone had called her kind.

"Yes. You are like a kind knight who protects the princess," Hanabi giggled.  
Then, without warning her face fell and Akane wondered what she was suddenly thinking about.

"Thank you Akane-chan," Hanabi looked up timidly before bowing. "I really enjoyed myself today."

* * *

End credits: Frédéric Chopin - Fantaisie-Impromptu in C minor Op. 66  
watch?v=fBA-38mzabs


	3. Chapter 3

Akane stood in front of the mirror in her room, admiring her dressed up hair and her red yukata decorated with peacocks.  
She turned around and smiled as she noticed how the design complemented her figure.

She had never reflected much on her appearance before.  
She knew people commented on it. She knew people admired her for her looks.

She had used her beauty to get back at the people in her village for the way they shunned her by seducing and humiliating the men so she could enjoy the frustration of their wives.  
But it never meant anything to her to care about her appearance for the sake of someone important to her.

Things had changed. She had asked one of the other girls in the factory to braid her hair for the matsuri being held today.  
If it looked good it was sure to please Hanabi.

Having beauty was never anything she appreciated because it was something she had no merit in it. But now she was happy to have been born with beauty. She thanked the Gods for this gift. Because it pleased Hanabi.

"You are kind."

Just recalling those words made pleasurable sensations coursing through the young woman's body.  
She touched her breast and was filled with shame for what she was thinking.  
When that man touched her she would have cut it off to stop him.  
Now she imagined Hanabi touching it and the sensation the idea produced was an altogether new one for her.

* * *

She met Hanabi a quarter of an hour later in front of a very colorful umbrella shop with paper lanterns hanging from the roof over the shop on the ground floor and umbrellas displayed lying folded out on it.

A couple of girls of ten or twelve years old were giggling and pointing at the showy display.

The blackette had bought a red umbrella with pink and white cherry blossoms that went well with her orange Yukata with peach blossoms. She wore a white obi and had her black hair tied with a big white ribbon.  
She looked very pretty and delicate.

"I couldn't resist," Hanabi laughed as they started walking. "There were so many beautiful umbrella's. I had to have one for the festival."

Akane had always turned the heads of every man in her village and that was no less the case in Tokyo, but she didn't notice the glances and states at all today.  
They walked together, navigating the people flocking together along the stands and stalls of the Tanabata festival while Hanabi talked.  
Akane looked at her, smiling at the girl's innocent prattle while they walked among the crowd and the various colorful streamers hanging all around them.

"The owners of the meat shop are always so kind to me. Noriko-san will be at the festival with the boy she likes. She wants us to accompany them because she's a little nervous.  
After their date, we are going to her parents together for a nagashi-somen party. You really must join us."

"I don't want to intrude. I don't know these people," Akane said while looking away.

"Is this still because of the burakumin?"

The taller girl looked at her companion's disappointed look.

"No," She responded. "If you must know, I'm shy to meet people," She blushed.

Hanabi gazed at her in surprise.  
Akane heard the beginning of a snicker as she started to explain: "It's not that strange, is it? I never had any friends. We are the same you and I. "

Suddenly she felt Hanabi grab her hand, just like in the theater. Akane saw the younger girl look quietly ahead.  
She felt her entire body heat up.  
Embarrassed by the blushing of her cheeks she kept quiet while they walked along the stalls and in between the people.

'Is it shame that makes you hide your face?' Sarashi asked in an angry hiss.  
'Justified shame for the weakness you are showing. Why do you allow this girl to affect your judgment like this? Why not enjoy this time while anticipating how you will kill her?'

Akane glared at a harmless daifuku stall.

"Yasuroika-sa...n! Over here!"

Akane felt Hanabi's hand slip from hers as they both turned in the direction of an anxious voice.  
A small girl with long blonde pigtails was waving at them in the company of a handsome young man.

"It's Noriko-chan," Hanabi whispered at her companion. "That must be Awaya-san by her side."

They approached the couple and Hanabi introduced herself to Mugi Awaya and Akane to both.  
He dryly returned their greeting.

So you are Minagawa-san?" Noriko turned to Akane with wonder.  
"Hana-chan told me you are such a great friend to her. You do everything together. It's so nice to have such a close friend."

Akane cursed inwardly as a sudden blush graced her cheeks.  
"Hanabi told me she is very happy working at your meat shop. I'm grateful she found such kind employers," She bowed politely in return.

"It sounds more like you are her older sister than her friend," Mugi casually observed.

"Father is very happy with Hanabi though, so he won't forbid you from seeing each other like the King of heaven did Orihime and Hikoboshi," Noriko giggled.

Mugi watched the girl coldly until she finished laughing and looked embarrassed by her own joke. Then he sighed and looked away.

"Oh, I understand," Hanabi laughed awkwardly. "That's pretty funny."

"Look the float is coming near," Mugi remarked as the people around them started to get more animated and the sound of the taiko drums became louder.

Akane looked at the upset Noriko and Hanabi anxiously talking together at about two-meter distance from her as the pushing crowd separated them momentarily.  
Then Noriko walked demurely towards her date and stood beside him while Hanabi stood next to her.

The taiko drummers and the dancers came in sight while some of the people around them started dancing to the music.  
The loud music was exhilarating. Akane could feel the beat inside of her body.  
It shook her heart and forced its pulse to adapt to the rhythm.  
There were so many lights and colors everywhere. Blue and green and yellow and orange...

The dancers were moving as if they were samurai, fighting for their country against an invisible enemy. Their fast and fluid movements flashing before Akane's eyes as she used to do during her lifelong training.

She looked at Hanabi again, who had been looking down at her feet with a sad expression but quickly smiled again and looked up at the dancers.  
She wished the blackette was standing next to her. She didn't know what had made her look like that, but she wanted to think that she could make Hanabi feel better just by touching her.

'like sisters? Or perhaps... Like lovers?'

Sarashi's cold, cruel, mocking voice whispered in Akane's ear, turning her white as a sheet and gasping while the dancers and drummers passed her by.

'Is it too hard to resist the call of sweet fragrances and warm embraces? Are you not a warrior?  
I think you know better than to give in to these cheap desires.  
This little demon will exploit every weakness you show if you let her.  
Lovers?' Sarashi sneered as the beautifully decorated float celebrating the star-crossed Orihime and Hikoboshi, whose romance lay at the heart of the Tanabata festival, was carried past her sight.

'You are warriors, both of you.  
The only color you need to see is the color of Hanabi's blood. And after that, you will be rewarded for stifling these useless budding feelings.  
You are to bring fortune to your family.  
Enjoy this time of leisure and stop fooling around. You are not a child. This girl is destined to die by your hand.'

"Are you alright?"

Akane turned to her right and found Mugi had been staring at her. She hoped he had not been staring long. She was glad Hanabi was chatting with Noriko.

"Yes. Thank you," She bowed. "I have a slight headache. That's all."

"We have very good medicine for that. Newly developed. It's called aspirin," The handsome young man said as if she was standing at the counter. Akane remembered Hanabi telling her that Mugi was going to university to study chemistry and take over his parents' apothecary later.

"That's right, Mugi," Noriko called out behind him. "We still haven't hung up our wishes yet."

"Neither have we," Hanabi said with a startled look at Akane. "How come you haven't?" She asked her pigtailed friend.

"Well, we only arrived just before you found us," Noriko replied.

"Let's do it quickly. I want to get something to eat," Mugi sighed.

Akane quickly got the piece of paper she had written her wish on from her obi and tied it to an overhanging bamboo-branch while the young man went to get some yakisoba at a nearby yatai.

Hanabi and Noriko tied theirs up a little further away. Noriko watched Mugi intently as he was served from the yakisoba street vendor at his two-wheeled wooden food cart.

Like Akane, Hanabi took care to hold her hands around the piece of paper so the other girl couldn't see what she had written.  
The flaxen-haired young woman didn't want the younger girl to be confronted with their fate today. She wished for salvation for both of them, but she didn't want Hanabi to think of painful things today.

Even so, Akane supposed it would be only natural for the blackette to wish for the same and to be delivered from her horrible fate, so she was thoroughly shocked when she could clearly make out the kanji for the word "love" on the paper Hanabi was tying to the branch.

What love was she wishing for? Whose love was she wishing for?

These were the thoughts that confused Akane's mind as Hanabi noticed she had been able to read her wish after all and turned away with an embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

"Here. Have some of my soba noodles," Mugi solicitously appeared next to Akane while an older woman bowed an apology for bumping into him.  
"Some food will help your headache."

They started to walk with the crowd along the stalls. Akane and Mugi in front and Hanabi with Noriko behind them.

"So you are from Fujisawa-Osaka?" The young man asked. "How do you find it here?"

"Fine," Akane smiled, adopting her fake seductress persona. "Tokyo is so big. It's a little overwhelming, but I like it."

She awkwardly ate some of Mugi's hot, savory noodles from the bamboo plate he had brought with him.

"You don't work in the meat shop, do you?"

She wanted to slice him up for that insult. Then she realized Hanabi was working in the meat shop and felt ashamed for thinking that way.

"No. I work in a bamboo-basket factory. It's hard work, but it pays well," She lied.

"Hey, Mugi-san," Noriko unexpectedly interrupted. "Are you enjoying your yakisoba?"

Akane noticed the girl was grabbing Mugi's butt-cheek while she put her arm around his waist.  
He roughly pushed his twin-tailed friend off and glared at her.

"What is wrong with you?" He coldly asked the shocked looking girl before walking on.  
Akane followed with a saddened Noriko in tow.

"I know I'm lucky to get to study," Mugi continued. "I'm giving it all I've got. Western medicine is constantly evolving and there is much to learn, but when I take over my parents business I want to make it an even bigger success," He casually smiled. "My future wife will be well taken care off.

'What a disgusting attempt to impress me!' Akane thought to herself. 'I'm the daughter of a samurai. Who does this upstart boy think he is?'

"I'm sure you will do great at university, Mugi," Noriko enthusiastically stated behind them to Mugi's obvious dismay.

Akane had half expected the girl to have fallen back and complain to Hanabi how she was being treated.  
the flaxen-haired young woman could have told Noriko she shouldn't have any illusions about the seaweed currently walking next to her.

"Of course our business is doing very well even now," Mugi continued. "We not only sell medicine, but we deal in several cosmetics which I can recommend to anyone. I think you will be pleased to find how they can accentuate your great beauty, Minagawa-san."

Akane felt a sudden panic grip her. Something told her Hanabi was in great danger and instinctively she turned around in a flash, surprising everyone around her.

To her relief Hanabi seemed fine, walking among the people a little behind them and smiling timidly when she noticed Akane had turned to look for her.  
She ran up to join the trio and took a quick look at the dejected Noriko.

"Hey, I saw they are having an archery contest. You are an experienced shooter aren't you Awaya-san? Akane-chan is very good too. Don't you want to join?" The blackette modestly suggested.

Mugi looked to his left with an intrigued look. "You are an archer?" He asked an exasperated Akane.

"Ow!" They heard Noriko suddenly exclaim behind them. "You...!"

"Aw, Noriko-chan! Are you alright?!"

Akane and Mugi turned around to find Hanabi sitting down next to the suddenly quiet twin-tailed girl who seemed to have tripped and fallen while the people behind them tried to avoid trampling over them in passing to the best of their ability.

"No. I... I think I sprained my ankle," Noriko whined.

Mugi turned to Akane with an annoyed look.  
It took him a few seconds to realize why she was staring at him so intensely.

He hesitatingly walked towards his date and looked her in the eyes while offering his hand.  
"Can you stand?" He asked.

Noriko stared anxiously from him to Hanabi.

"No. You don't need to carry me, thank you. I'll manage," She finally said.

Mugi was about to go back to Akane, but Hanabi stopped him.

"You shouldn't try to stand after taking such a nasty fall, Noriko-chan.  
What do you think, Awaya-san? I think it would be best if you carried her home. Akane and I will join you after the play."

"I... I..." Mugi stammered.

"I agree it would be best for Kamomebata-san to rest," Akane quietly offered.

With a defeated look Mugi kneeled before his excited date and lifted her up in his arms.  
Noriko looked at him as if he was a fairytale prince.  
"I... I... Hope I am not too heavy?" She stammered quietly.

"No, it is a good thing you are a featherweight," Mugi grinned, mollified by the sensation of the girl's dainty form in his arms.

Akane and Hanabi sent them off with a "See you later," before continuing their walk to Ueno park where an open-air play was going to be performed.

* * *

The trees were beautifully decorated with streamers and a platform was erected for the players to perform on.  
Everything was organized by the local Toshogu shrine and the Gojōten shrine.  
The performance was the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi.

Akane sat next to Hanabi on the grass and watched the actors take to the stage illuminated by a whole bunch of paper lanterns.  
She had never taken much interest in the plays they had watched together, but the actors played very well and the story was beautiful though a little sad.

The weather was beautiful today, and Akane couldn't help but be happy about that. Even if it was unusually cold in the evenings for the time of year.  
She looked to her right and smiled, seeing Hanabi absorbed in the story as usual.

"Hey," She said.

It took a few seconds, but Hanabi turned her face Akane's way.

The older girl swallowed.

"Do you have someone you like in your village?"

Hanabi's expression turned strange and she awkwardly turned her attention toward the stage again.

"I could never care for any of the people in my village," She stated bitterly. "I told you, you are the only person who's important to me."

Akane blushed involuntarily even as she heard Sarashi's mocking laughter in her ears.  
She thought she saw a tear roll down Hanabi's cheek, but the blackette often cried at the sad parts of the plays.

Akane used to think those tears were cute.  
She used to take a secret pleasure in seeing the blackette in distress.  
It made her feel good about herself when Hanabi seemed like she wanted her protection or needed her to be cheered up.

Now she wished Hanabi would always smile and laugh cheerfully on her own.  
She wished the blackette didn't seem that lonely all the time.

Being alone was normal for Akane.  
Sarashi had taught her that she shouldn't expect anything from anyone else. She had taught her to find happiness in her abilities.  
But Hanabi always seemed lonely and sad.  
It was a sadness that could make Akane feel as if her heart was strangling her.

Suddenly Hanabi leaned close to her, hugging her and holding onto her right arm.  
Akane felt a heat surge through her body.

'This demon is suffocating you.'

"The evenings are so chilly lately. I wish I had dressed warmer," Hanabi whispered.

Her face was close to Akane's. Their hairs touched.  
Akane could feel the blackette's breast against her arm.

'These feelings are beneath you. I taught you better than this,' Sarashi scolded.

Akane could hear Hanabi's whimpering and felt her wet cheek touch hers as the King of heaven punished Orihime and Hikoboshi for the neglect of their duties.  
Her hand stealthily moved towards the blackette's face.

'Push the little demon down and strangle her,' Sarashi whispered cruelly.

Akane roughly pushed Hanabi from her, got up and wordlessly made her way through the other spectators.

* * *

Once she was out in the open she ran.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

The sadder she felt the faster she ran. Straight towards her home.

Sarashi was right. These feelings were not for her and they were not for Hanabi.  
Their fates had been decided for them, so why even entertain these ideas?  
Hanabi had been at fault from the start for wanting to taste another kind of life.  
She had degraded herself by associating with Burakumin because of it.

Akane knew all this. So why could she not obey Sarashi?  
Why did Hanabi's trembling voice and her tearful face keep ringing in her ears and sticking to her eyes?

A hot storm brewed inside Akane's heart that blew apart the icy walls Sarashi had built there.  
The name of that storm was Hanabi. To be looked at by her, to be touched by her.

Hanabi had created a new world for Akane.  
A rich world filled with light, full of life and sound.

Akane knew not what to do with these budding feelings. Nothing that had been taught her in her entire life had prepared her for this.  
Even if she fell down from pain and exhaustion during training the goal was always simple, but now...

"Akane-chan! Akane-chan!"

Akane turned around and saw Hanabi had run after her.

They were standing in a quiet street near the meat shop. There was nobody else around.  
Everyone was at the festival.

Both young women were standing still, catching their breath after their run.

"I'm sorry," Hanabi began to weep while she bowed deeply. "I know have been overly familiar with you. It's just that I feel free with you to that extent... And I was really cold..."

"We will warm you up, pretty girl. Both of you."

Akane saw Hanabi grimace as a group of seven young men in yukata and western dress walked up behind the blackette.  
She tried to rush over to her but found herself suddenly in the grip of five other men.

Terror chilled her spine.

She struggled with all of her might to break free, but there were too much of them.

"Help! Help!"

Her mouth was gagged.

"Akane-chan! Help m...!"

"Don't scream. There's nothing to be afraid of," A tall brutish-looking man grinned in Akane's face. "We are going to make you feel really good. And your friend too."

He casually pointed behind him and Akane saw Hanabi kicking and struggling as the men forced her down.

Tears streamed down the taller girl's face as she was being pushed down herself and knew that she wasn't going to be able to save the most important person in her life from what was about to happen to them.  
She exerted every muscle in her body and screamed impotently as she felt the men undress her.

"Geez... Don't you boys think you're in the wrong part of town?" A raspy voice came from a few meters behind her.

The men who were holding her down relaxed their grip, giving her the chance she needed to kick one off, punch another and quickly crawl from under them.

She didn't look at her savior but at Hanabi, who likewise had taken the opportunity to escape her assailants and had run from them, standing with her back to the wall of a nearby house.

"It does seem like these guys have lost their way, Shingo-kun. Maybe we should make sure they never forget where they belong."

Akane recognized the voice and turned to look at its owner. It was one of the Burakumin she had attacked the day she had revealed herself to Hanabi.  
A muscular young man of average height with the claw of a dragon tattoo appearing on his neck from beneath his red yukata.

There were about ten of them. Akane turned and ran to Hanabi and saw fifteen other yakuza surround the men that had attacked the blackette.

"Akane-chan!" Hanabi exclaimed.

Akane examined the graze on Hanabi's arm left by the rough handling she had suffered from the men. The sight hurt her heart.

'This happened because I left her. This was my fault.  
I keep fantasizing about what I want to be to Hanabi, but I'm worthless to her. I can't even protect her. I'm worthless!"

"Akane-chan?" A small voice seeped into her ear. "I am sorry."

Akane couldn't look at Hanabi. Could not speak.  
Hanabi embraced her and trembled in her arms. She was small, soft and warm.

'Sweet sweet Hanabi. Hug me.'

"Shhh! We've been saved. I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... This was all my fault for running away," Akane wept.

She felt Hanabi's body shake at her words, but Akane herself was shaking all over.

"Hey. We're sorry. We'll pay you for the girls. Alright? And we'll leave right away," A burly squat guy from the group of their assailants tremulously spoke.

"Hear that, Yuta-kun? These guys want to pay us! " A tall burakumin laughed as he got a butcher knife from a satchel under his dark-green yukata

Akane pushed Hanabi behind her as she felt a hand touch her shoulder and screamed out.

"Shh... I'm sorry for startling you. You girls better get out of here. It's gonna get ugly. I'll escort you to the meat shop," One of the Burakumin, a big man with a friendly face and a scar next to his ear, said softly.

"Thank you so much for saving us," Hanabi murmured and bowed. Akane felt the blackette hold her hand and that calmed her down somewhat and reminded her that she needed to be a source of comfort to the girl.  
She still couldn't stop shivering, however.

"You were lucky we came by," Their robust companion said with a concerned expression while they heard the sound of fighting behind them as they left the street where they had been attacked.

"We were just going to visit Kamomebata-san and join the nagashi-somen party, but then Yuta-kun and the others met us, saying they were going to look for Noriko-chan, since she hadn't come back from the festival yet," The man in dark-blue yukata said, rubbing his tattooed skull.

"Noriko-chan tripped and fell. She sprained her ankle, so Awaya-san said he would bring her home," Hanabi said with a frown. "Maybe they are at his place?"

"Good idea. We'll have someone go and look there after I brought you to the party."

They walked on quietly until they got to the closed front of the meat shop and exchanged their clogs for slippers when they entered the genkan.

Akane and Hanabi shared a look.

The flaxen-haired young woman didn't feel at all like joining a party after what they had been through and she wanted to stay with Hanabi to keep an eye on her, but she couldn't really say that.

"Nanami-san, can you please excuse us to Kamomebata-san," Hanabi bowed. "I'm a little tired and after what happened... I just want to go to my room and sleep."

"Are you sure? It might cheer you up to be among friends," The kindly Yakuza frowned.

The blackette looked timidly at Akane.

"Could you please stay with me, Akane-chan?" She bowed.

The older girl nodded curtly, grateful for the possibility to make sure her friend was going to be alright.

"Alright then," Their companion scratched the bald side of his chonmage again. "Have a nice evening and I'll see you tomorrow."

He lumbered away through the kitchen towards the garden in the back of the house without another word, whistling the melody of "Shintaro-san of the mountain".

* * *

Akane followed the younger girl up the stairs into her room.

Hanabi turned on the electric lamp in her room and went to make tea downstairs in the kitchen.

Akane took the chance to try acupuncture in order to calm her nerves while she peered at the pale lampshade that was decorated with little owls, but it didn't work. She was still shivering all over.

At last Hanabi came back and they had tea while sitting close together at her round high table.

Akane watched the blackette with concern while drinking her tea.  
"Are... You okay?" She asked.

Hanabi looked at her for a long time and then she bowed her head.  
She didn't say anything, but after a while, Akane saw tears falling from her eyes.

"We were saved today from a horrible experience. I was never so scared as when those men pushed me down and started to undress me. But Akane-chan... If you would think that this is your fault I would feel infinitely worse."

Akane swallowed and felt her eyes sting.  
She stopped trying to pretend she wasn't affected by what had happened.

"I... I... There were too many of them. I couldn't move... I..."

"It would be bad if we couldn't honestly show one another how devastating this was to us. We don't owe each other anything..." Hanabi wept. "I don't want you to feel like you have to stay strong for my sake. You were there to comfort me as soon as you could... My shiny knight. Thank you," The blackette bowed.  
"You are so nice. You are much kinder than any boy and much more dependable."

Hanabi grabbed hold of Akane's sleeve and pulled on her arm until the blonde couldn't help herself and hugged Hanabi to her chest.

"Hanabi... Hanabi... I'm so worthless..."

They held one another, weeping bitterly over the traumatizing experience they had narrowly escaped.  
All else was forgotten for the moment, but the comfort they were able to find in this embrace.

After they wept together and talked over what had happened in hushed tones Hanabi submitted herself to mesmerism again.  
Akane watched how Hanabi laid down on the floor, slowly moving her hands all over her body.

The older girl's heartbeat increased. It was hot, painful, yet it made her feel giddy. She tried to divert her attention.

Hanabi had three western-style cupboards in her room. One against the wall to the left of the tokonoma and two against the wall to the right of it.

They weren't hers.  
Noriko was as much of a modernist as her parent's employee and had influenced her father into incorporating western furniture and such into their house.  
But Hanabi seemed to have been grateful for the high wooden cabinets.

Akane saw them filled with things that Hanabi had collected from the days they spent together.

Even the tokonoma was graced by a little statue of a tanuki Akane had bought for her that stood proudly in the middle of the alcove.

And on the top shelf of one of the cupboards otherwise filled with books and the magazines Akane wasn't supposed to read without Hanabi present was the small collection of origami they had made together.

"I am not good at this." Akane had said. "We should unfold this."

"It is beautiful Akane-chan. Can I keep it?"

Fuzzy and warm emotions spread through Akane's chest.  
In contrast with Hanabi who had cluttered her room with memento's of their "friendship" Akane still possessed nothing to prove that she and Hanabi weren't always enemies.  
She felt sorry for herself somehow.

In her relationship with Hanabi, she had always played the part of an older sister.  
Always listening to the younger girl's insecurities. Always comforting. Always indulging.  
This was unlike Akane.

She was a warrior. All her life had been about training, preparing for the ritual of divine selection.  
There was nobody to whom she could tell her troubles, nor did they clean up her tears. But this had never made her feel lonely. Maybe she had been wrong.

'No!' Akane shook her head. Sarashi's voice scolded her.  
'This is not the kind of life you wish for. You are a warrior. You have no need for friends.  
Hanabi Yasuraoka is not your friend. She is your enemy. She is a demon that is confusing and distracting you.'

"Akane-chan?"

Akane was startled by Hanabi's voice. The girl looked at her intently and slowly got up and walked toward Akane.

"I feel much better now. Thank you for comforting me earlier," She bowed.

She reached for Akane's hand. At that moment her yukata slid open. Akane reached for it while Hanabi pulled it closed.

Their hand's touched.

"I'm sorry"

"Oh, sorry"

Two voices echoed in the room at the same time as they bowed and hit their heads, causing them to laugh together with flushed cheeks.

They smiled at each other.

"This time it is your turn to be mesmerized Akane-chan."

"No. It was okay for once. But I don't care for a second time," Akane said, nervous about Hanabi again performing such an intimate act with her.

But the younger woman looked at her with her childlike periwinkle eyes. Akane could never say no to those eyes.

* * *

Hanabi's hands moved slowly over Akane's body. It felt soothing, relaxing.

She had been nervous, like last time. She grew warm and uncomfortable with Hanabi being so close to her, nearly touching her all over her body. Her hands teasingly close, yet not touching.

But Hanabi did this well. She was very talented. Just like last time Akane quickly felt more relaxed than she had ever felt.  
She felt like a little girl, sleeping in the open air.  
She was at peace, with Hanabi's scent all around her.

They spent the whole evening together.

It got very late, but Akane stayed with Hanabi in her room. Listening to Hanabi reading from one of her books.

Akane enjoyed the sound of the girl's voice more than the words she was reading. She enjoyed looking at Hanabi's mysterious periwinkle eyes moving left and right and her soft, low voice nimbly pronouncing the words on the pages.

Suddenly Hanabi yawned. "It is late."

"Yes." Akane got up. "I have to go home."

Hanabi caught her by the wrist.

"Akane? Do you want to stay the night?" She asked with an anxious look.

Akane swallowed.

She did not know if this was a good idea. She was still shaken up by what had happened and didn't know if she was going to be alright walking home alone in the dark, but she was nervous about spending the night with Hanabi too.

"Please keep me company for tonight. I'm afraid to be alone after what happened," Hanabi pleaded while bowing her head and cringing miserably.

Akane could help it. She didn't want the blackette to be alone in this state, so she touched her shoulder and when Hanabi looked up timidly she nodded her agreement.

* * *

Akane rested on a futon in Hanabi's room, covered by a duvet provided by Hanabi.  
Her head rested on a spare pillow provided by Hanabi's employers.  
She was completely enveloped by Hanabi.

She could not sleep. She felt so naked, Hanabi was so close.

'Hanabi Yasuraoka.'

She felt so warm. She remembered all the moments they had shared.

"You are the most important person in my life."

"You are kind and handsome, like the hero of the story."

"Amazing! Isn't it?"

Fingertips full of bandaged plasters.

The warmth of Hanabi's hands in hers at the theater.

Hanabi's cute body at the hot spot. Black hair shining in the sunlight of the teahouse.

Black eyes filled with tears.

'Hanabi.'

"Thank you Akane-chan. I really enjoyed myself today."

'Hanabi.'

Finally, Akane fell asleep.

She dreamed she was ten years old again. She was training with her katana.  
Suddenly her teacher disappeared and someone was calling her name.

She looked around but there was nothing to see.

Then, many arms pulled her down. Akane screamed and struggled in terror but her enemy was too powerful.

She heard something crawl closer in the growing darkness. It crawled over her body.  
A hideous demonic creature leered at her and Akane felt like she was going to lose her sanity.

"Don't be afraid Akane-chan. You don't have to be afraid with me around."

It was the voice of Amane. Now it was the demon who seemed afraid.

"You are a great warrior Akane-chan. So you don't have to be afraid."

The demon started to dissolve in front of Akane. She pulled on the arms holding her down and ripped them apart.

"Amane-chan! Where are you?!" She yelled.

"Shhh. I am right here. Don't be afraid. You are safe. Everything is alright."

"Amane-chan..."

"Shhh. Don't worry. Everything is alright…"

Hanabi woke her up in the morning. She told her she had slept well and thanked her for staying with her.

It wasn't until after they had breakfast and she had left for work that Akane remembered her nightmare and Amane saving her.

* * *

The next Saturday, after work, Akane was folding origami in her room She was practicing folding a lily for Hanabi and had nearly succeeded in folding it right.  
By the time she did, she heard a visitor approach her shoji.

Akane opened the sliding door to Hanabi with the result of her efforts in hand.

"This... I made this for you," She muttered with flushed cheeks.  
"Please accept this poorly executed work," She bowed.

Hanabi was surprised and blushed as well, speechlessly accepting the paper flower.

Akane saw how she gazed at the flower she had taken in her left hand for half a minute before she quietly thanked the older girl with a deep bow.

"I have something for you too," Hanabi finally smiled. "Please accept this humble present."

She handed Akane a package she had held in her right hand.

"It's our painting! I went to pick it up this week and wanted to bring it to you today. You have to look at it. It is really very beautiful."

Akane unwrapped the canvas and placed it unto a low wooden cabinet next to her larger tansu.

Hanabi came and stood beside her to admire the painting together.  
It was very colorful and bright.

The painter had seated Akane on a bench with Hanabi embracing her and leaning her head on the taller young woman's left shoulder just as they had posed.

Behind them, sakura trees were in full bloom and a river was visible behind the trees carrying small boats in the distance.

"It is very beautiful. Thank you for this beautiful picture," Akane smiled and bowed.

"It looks like Sumida river," She pondered after staring at the painting again.

"It probably is," Hanabi agreed.

Akane turned and gazed at Hanabi's smiling face reflecting her smile in the painting.

Hanabi's smile was very beautiful. Akane wished Hanabi would always smile like that and be happy.

"Hey, let's go to the river!" Hanabi suggested. "I bet I could find this exact spot."

"Isn't it just something he made up? Even if he reproduced a particular place, it won't look the same now," Akane replied.

"No, no. I will recognize it from the position of the trees relative to the river and the pattern of the branches. I'm sure of it!"

Hanabi being so excited was a dazzling experience. Akane didn't want her mood to change.

"Okay let's go before it gets dark."

* * *

They walked a while along the river, following the long avenue of cherry trees.

Hanabi had brought her origami lily along and carefully held it in her left hand as she wandered around scrutinizing every tree they passed.

"These ones!" She exclaimed suddenly.

Akane looked at the trees she was pointing at and tilted her head while an older man and woman coming from the opposite direction looked surprised at the excited young woman as they continued their walk.

'Could she possibly be right?' Akane wondered.

The blackette walked back a little and took a few steps closer to the river.

"Come and stand over here, Akane-chan," She called.

Akane curiously stepped closer until she was looking exactly where the younger girl was looking at and to her wonder, she recognized the general outline of the painting's background with the addition of a ferry floating on the river far to her left and the exclusion of the flower blossoms.

"That's amazing, Hana-chan!" She exclaimed to the Hanabi's startled embarrassment.

"We have passed Sumida river so many times together during our stay here I know every spot along its banks by heart," Hanabi blushed.

"I really like walking along the rivers and the parks with you, Akane-chan," She said as she turned to watch the flow of the river.

'Such sweet words,' Sarashi whispered malignantly as Akane's heart fluttered.  
'Such sweet words in such romantic decor. Does it please you to hear her talk that way? Did you forget you are to kill her in order to stay alive?'

"I really like you, Akane-chan," Hanabi continued as she turned around with a tremulous smile.

Akane stared at her with flushed cheeks.

"I know our time together is almost over, but let's not think about that yet," The blackette bowed her head. "I'm really happy that we had so much fun together. Thank you for being my friend."

Akane had trouble finding an appropriate response.

Then...

"I love you Akane-chan."

Hanabi put her arms around Akane and hugged her.

Akane slowly returned her embrace, leaning her cheek on Hanabi's head and sniffing her hair.  
It lasted only a few seconds, but it seemed much longer to the flaxen-haired girl.

"Aah... It's starting to rain," Hanabi sighed, looking up at the sky.

"Yes. We better go back home," Akane awkwardly responded, feeling droplets on her head.

She remembered now that Hanabi had forgotten her umbrella in Ueno park when they left in the middle of the play.  
She hoped they would be able to protect Hanabi's lily.

"Hey, Akane-chan!" Hanabi suddenly exclaimed as they ran together while she carefully hid the origami inside her orange yukata. "Let's come here together tomorrow and have a picnic for breakfast! I'll bring the food!"

* * *

Akane came home wet after bringing Hanabi to her lodgings at the meat shop.  
She changed and sat down in a new, warm light-blue kimono.

The rain was pouring down outside. It really was cold in the evenings for the time of year.

Akane looked at the painting, remembering Hanabi's words.

"I really like you Akane-chan."

She remembered how the younger girl had embraced her.

"I love you, Akane-chan."

Akane smiled at the painting.

'I like you too, Hanabi,' She thought to herself as she smiled at their portrait.

She went to sleep a little later. Tired but very happy.

* * *

A softly droning sound slowly pulled Akane from her slumber.

It took her mind a while to recognize the sound as words, but when it did she rolled her body into a defensive crouching position in a flash.

With beating heart she looked around the room and recognized the form of the arbitrator seated leisurely at her chabudai.

"Ah! You have awakened it seems," He smiled serenely while folding a bunch of paper sheets in front of him.

"I should take my tanto and cut your throat!" Akane bristled as her blood kept pumping through her veins. "How dare you come in here a second time without my permission?!"

The self-proclaimed daimyo's young confidant sighed and grimaced.

"I am sorry for disturbing you, but I felt the need to have a talk with you," He softly spoke with a bow.

Akane sat down and used her acupuncture techniques to try and calm herself while the arbitrator unfolded another sheet of paper and looked it over for a minute.

"I wonder what it is that amuses you girls so playing with each other. Is it the lure of the forbidden?"He raised an eyebrow at her.  
"It is fun playing house together. But you must understand it is but a game.  
Dress up for each other. Take each other to plays and parks. But it is all fake and when it is over you must return to reality."

It was like what Sarashi had said. The ridicule was more subtle, but it was certainly there.

Akane steeled herself to his words. She built a wall of ice around her heart. Sculptured by her hatred of him.  
These were but words. They had no meaning. They were meant to antagonize her and nothing more. This was his game.

The arbitrator took one of the sheets of paper and started to read:

"I have laid the trap to ensnare Amaterasu Gozen. Please alert me when she departs to search for me."

Akane's heart beat intensely.

Until now, a gentle warmth had satisfied Akane's heart. It had felt like a blessed happy garden full of blissful flowers.

In a blink of an eye, that garden froze over.

"I want you to leave!" She exclaimed. "Stop bothering me!"

The arbitrator smiled peacefully.

"These are quite insightful. Information is key in warfare. You should acquaint yourself with what is written in these letters Hanabi wrote to her parents."

He threw the bundle at Akane.

"She is so tense whenever we sit close together at the theater."

The flaxen-haired girl couldn't help recognize the words. She wanted to pull her eyes out.

While being driven by a fierce impulse, her hand reached for the letters.

'You should not! You cannot do this'

A cold wind froze her spine. It was useless to resist.

Why could she not stop?  
Because it was destiny reasserting itself.  
Because she was Amaterasu Gozen And she could not escape her fate.

Akane started opening the cruel pages. And, there… the characters of Hanabi's writing were all over the pieces of paper.

Akane's eyes chased across the letters. Reason and instinct kept turning and turning inside like a maelstrom.  
Characters danced, information danced and fragments of poisonous words and feelings mixed up in Akane's brain.

Each word she read cut deeper into her heart until it bled dry.  
At the bottom of it all was the sting of a vicious insect named truth.

Hanabi's proposal had been a trap.

Hanabi who was not physically strong needed a way to defeat Akane. So she contrived a cowardly plan.  
All that was necessary was pretending to be submissive and melancholy. To Carefully observe and learn.

"It is frightening being under Akan's watchful eyes all the time.  
She is like a dangerous beast. I have to be watchful that she doesn't start to perceive my intentions.  
But I proceed as we have agreed:

One, you observe the prey. Two, you spread the bait. Three, you slowly lure her in.  
Four, you close the trap.

Amaterasu Gozen falls so easily for the bait. She may have been trained as a warrior, but she has the mind of a mere child.  
Envelop her in luxuries and she drowns like a fly in honey.  
Her eyes are open in wonder at all there is to see in Tokyo. She looks like she's getting dizzy from all the colors and attractions.

And as she does, I weave my web of seduction and lies. I will make Akane love me and suck her dry of the will to fight me."

The original plan Hanabi and her parents had agreed upon was to find a boy who was to seduce Akane in Tokyo and break her heart.  
This was not easily accomplished. The young man would have had to be an exceptional person to seduce the flower of Fujisawa town.  
Hanabi looked around for the perfect candidate. But in the end, nobody would do.

Then observation paid off.

Hanabi had noticed that Akane behaved awkwardly whenever they accidentally met in town.  
Although Akane herself seemed to be unaware of any strangeness in this, her almost fearful reactions planted a suspicion in Hanabi's mind  
In the end, she decided to do this thing herself without any outside help.

"I wear the clothes that Akane likes. I dress myself up in the way that excites her appreciation the most.  
I let her hear what she wants to hear and let her see what she wants to see.  
I sound affectionate and insecure. I seem vulnerable and melancholy.  
I make her feel as if she needs to protect me.  
I am constantly solicitous for her happiness.  
And I cook for her and compliment her... Like any good wife.

What fishes are not ruthlessly fished with a net of kindness? Instead of honey, I will drown Akane in Hanabi."

The bottom of one of the letters was "decorated " by a crude drawing of Hanabi who miserably hollowed out Akane's mind and sanity piece by piece.

"I am having so much fun."

"Really, it's too easy."

"She is a stupid, innocent child, unprepared for the world. "

"It is painful not to burst out in laughter when she blushes."

"It was so absurd I thought I would die while trying to hold my laughter"

'Lies! There cannot be such a thing. Hanabi Yasuraoka is straightforward and lovable. She is the sunshine of my life.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Even when she held my hand in the Shinpa theater.  
That was a lie.

When she fell asleep in my arms in the park. Lies!

Jumping into my arms at the hot spot. Lies!

When she kissed me at the painter's atelier.

Even then. Even then. Even then.

It's a lie! Everything is!'

Akane's heart was torn asunder. Her mind was in anguish. It was more painful than hell and exceeded the emptiness of the sky.

This was the word of Sarashi that Akane had been trying to ignore the entire time: destiny!  
She had been taught about deceitful tactics all of her life. She had been thoroughly warned!  
She had closed her eyes and ears to the truth and had buried her head in the sand.

"You are surprisingly feminine, Akane," The arbitrator smirked as he regarded her agitatedly crumbling the letters in her hands while sitting next to her disarrayed futon.

"The men in your village have always considered you the opposite, but after having observed you these past months I have discovered just to what extent you had built up a front around yourself in your home environment."

Akane watched his self-important mocking expression. Her face reddened in anger and shame, feeling naked under his eyes.

"It is perfectly understandable for you to feel all eyes of those who know you to be tainted as daggers pointed at your form.  
It is just as understandable for you to recognize the gazes of the men who secretly lust for your forbidden beauty and spitefully smirk at the disapproving women who can see as well as you do how their husbands, sons, and brothers have a war going on inside of them between their desire and their abhorrence whenever they see you pass by.

It is only normal for you to then pursue this ability for revenge and openly flirt in businesses and on the street to sow discord in the houses of those who see you as poison."

Akane looked down at her feet, feeling like crying, determined not to give that hateful man the pleasure of seeing a single tear in her eyes.

"That is the Akane your people know: Unfeeling, strong, cold, untouchable by the finer feelings a woman is supposed to develop for men.  
And she is a fine woman, but I have learned that she too is a mask worn by the true Akane. The Akane who is a maiden in love."

Akane's eyes reflexively shot up to see whether Narumi Kanai was testing or mocking. Pale white was her face as she realized what she saw in his eyes was knowledge.

And armed with that knowledge his piercing eyes ruthlessly drew the tears that she had wanted to deny him so much.

"After all of these years of building your mask, Hanabi peeled it off with more ease than I could squash a bug.

The famed Akane! A cold beauty, as deadly as any Samurai warrior. Trained for combat her entire life!" The arbitrator enjoyed the sight of his pitifully weeping prey.

"A tearful, heartbroken maiden who fell for a vicious seductress."

Akane heard Sarashi's voice inside her mind: 'Listen closely. This is the only way you will hear reason. He is only trying to help. You know this is true. Stop fooling yourself. Don't allow her to make you her property.'

Akane leaned on her knees, sobbing freely while two voices were telling her the thing which most of all she did not want to hear.

"I would have expected for someone so good at hiding her true nature to easily see through the lies and pretense of others," The arbitrator grinned while he got up and cast his eyes on the painting Akane had carefully placed on her cabinet.  
"But luckily for us, there is always one person who can see the truth behind every disguise."

Akane looked up hesitantly, her heart bleeding from a thousand wounds, but still holding together, still refusing to believe that the sweet, artless, sad Hanabi could ever have done the things that Sarashi and the arbitrator had been warning her about. Still she saw the sweet smile Hanabi had shown her.  
"You are like a Prince who saves the Princess."

"No matter how well evil disguises itself, even if the Shinto priest does not recognize its true form the painter will always lay bare its venomous grin for all to see!"

What was it that Akane saw there along Hanabi's lips? Was that the sweet smile that made her feel so warm?  
Akane's eyes were full of tears, but she was sure the Hanabi that had hugged her so tight when they had posed for the painting had been smiling. A beautiful, sweet, gentle smile that made the world beautiful whenever Akane looked at their portrait.

She was sure it was still there.

If she could only wipe away the tears from her eyes and look again that gentle smile would still be there.

She hadn't realized she had been weeping this much as she saw the moist streak on her sleeve.  
And she thought Hanabi cried a lot.

She chuckled without feeling as she opened her eyes again and raised them once again to look at the painting, tears still forming on the edges of her vision.

And yet there it was. The realization came without passion, because Sarashi had hardened her poor heart to the shock.  
So it didn't hurt to see Hanabi's mocking eyes stare at her as if she were standing right in front of Akane.  
It didn't hurt when she noticed for the first time the supercilious smirk playing around those ruby red lips.

None of this hurt at all.

Akane had been thought to expect these kinds of trickery. None of this came as a surprise.

And even though she felt her heart bleeding out inside her body, Akane did not feel any pain.

She could not feel any pain, because Hanabi...

No. Hanabi was nothing to her, and she was nothing to Hanabi.  
There was only their fate. They had formed a pact. No, that's false, because Hanabi had been deceiving her.  
They were friends... No. That wasn't true either. That was just what Hanabi wanted her to think.

But they were closer than any other two people...

Akane balled her fists.

Nobody understood them better than they did each other...

"Liar! Liar!" She screamed. Tears flowing from her eyes.

Screaming out her rage towards Hanabi Akane opened a drawer in her tansu.

Narumi Kanai smiled.

"I see I have opened your eyes to reality then. I hope you will be more careful in the future," He said.

He adjusted his glasses and opened the shoji.

"I will take my leave now."

He quickly jumped aside, sliding the inside of his upper arm against his chest as if he had an ich.

Without warning, Akane stormed past him out of her room.

The arbitrator had noticed she had taken a tanto along, hiding the dagger inside of her kimono, but he did not try to stop her.  
As far as he was concerned any scenario where that arrogant, plain black-haired girl died was a good one.

End credits: Teru Teru Bozu

watch?v=JnXl9jNy7o0


	4. Chapter 4

It was raining hard outside.  
Thick grey clouds were denying Tokyo the light of the sun and bathed it in a torrent.

A flaxen-haired girl walked through the rain without an umbrella. Unprotected. On bare feet, in her kimono.  
She looked forlorn, pathetic, miserable and painful.  
She unconsciously used her massage techniques on herself and sealed herself off from the world.  
There was only the misery she felt inside.

'We had agreed to meet in the park,' Akane confusedly remembered.

'Good. With this weather there will be nobody else around, but the little demon will have to honor the date if she wants to maintain her facade. It is perfect for doing what must be done,' Sarashi whispered.

* * *

Akane noticed Hanabi immediately when she approached the place she had recognized from the painting.  
The blackette seemed to be crouching over the edge of the sloping riverbank.

The cherry trees creaked under the violence of the rain.  
The villa's of Tokyo's wealthy were visible among the elms through the rain on the other side of Sumida river.  
Their inhabitants were happily having breakfast together. Preparing to visit friends or family.

Akane never had friends, her family didn't visit often because they didn't want to be bothered by her parents' financial distress.

The people on the other side knew nothing of loneliness. They wouldn't care if a girl died on a rainy day.  
As long as it didn't happen to them.

Akane cautiously approached to within two meters distance of her adversary. Then she paused, getting soaked in the rain. Her breathing heavy. Her mind storming. It was as if she had gone mad. Her mind was racing. Her blood was pumping.

Sarashi whispered to her. 'What kind of thing are you?'

Akane remembered. 'I am Amaterasu Gozen. I am a warrior.'

She held the dagger in her fist and slowly moved towards Hanabi.  
The girl with the fake tears. The girl who acted as if she needed to be protected from the world while she was in complete control.  
This girl was a demon. Her form was bent over the edge of the river making sounds as if she was an animal, but Akane knew the truth now.

'Look at her, crawling in the mire," Sarashi sneered. 'This is her true form. Her breath comes out in wheezes. Her back is hunched. Her mouth has fangs. She hurt you! She is a demon!'

The more Sarashi talked to her, the more Akane really did began to see Hanabi as a demon. Part of her began to grow afraid when horns seemed to sprout from Hanabi's head in the pale light of the grey morning.

'Don't back out of this! She needs to die before she makes more victims.'

Akane came closer to Hanabi. Moving without a sound. She now stood at half a meter distance from her opponent.  
She slowly raised her shaking hand with the dagger and brought it to the side, ready to pounce and stab Hanabi through the neck.  
With all the willpower she had accumulated during her training it was the most difficult thing she had ever had to do.

She heard the inhuman sounds Hanabi was making.

'Just a little more,' She told herself. 'If you give a slight push, you're done. You will never go back again, never smile again.  
She'll have neither pain nor suffering.  
In this short decisive moment, let it end. That's the best.

Sarashi nor Kanai-san will bother you anymore. Because there will no longer be a need for them to do so.  
And I will become myself again. Free from troubling feelings.'

Then... Akane heard Hanabi whimper. She realized the girl was weeping.  
Just like after the theater.  
Just like at the onsen.  
Just like at sunrise.  
Just like when she leaped into her embrace.

Highly, intensely, it resonated. Pulling Akane's arm down.

All of Akane's training crumbled to dust.  
Suddenly she started to feel like a coward. She was also still frightened because of the deformed shape she was imagining in the shimmer.

'I do not want to do this after all... Hanabi...'

'No! Mobilize your failing reason!' Sarashi ordered her. 'Move! You can not allow her to live! Do not drown in Hanabi!

Was she not a coward? Tricking you like this instead of fighting honestly!  
Her evil has to be rooted out before she can hurt you more.  
Look at her! At this moment she is reaching to pull up a white-armed demon to help her!'

And Akane did notice now that Hanabi was desperately clinging to another creature which she was holding up in her arms.  
It had to be an enormous burden on her.  
They were at a spot by the river where the riverbank went straight down and the weight of that other person was hanging freely over the edge with her feet dipping in the water of the river.

Slowly realizing how much effort Hanabi was putting into hauling this person up made Akane think rationally again.  
It explained the labored breathing.  
It explained the contorted shape of Hanabi's body.  
It explained the mud clinging to her entire body.

As Akane watched closer she recognized the unconscious face of Noriko Kamomebata.  
Hanabi was busy trying to save another human being!

The shock of understanding helped Akane reassert control over her brain and Sarashi became quiet.

She sheathed her dagger as the evil influence of the arbitrator was washed from her body.  
Slowly she moved into a kneeling position next to a heavily breathing, drenched and pale Hanabi who looked up at her with a naked, surprised expression.

'I know the real Hanabi Yasuraoka,' Akane thought as she looked into those eyes.

The ground beneath them had been turned into mud because of the near continuous rainfall since last night, making things very difficult. But after several minutes of great effort from both young women they finally managed to heave the heavy, soaking, wet girl onto the grass.

Both of them were covered in mud now.

"It's Noriko-chan! I was standing under the tree, hiding from the rain and then I saw her body caught by a branch in the river!" Hanabi yelled in a panic.

Somehow the expression on her face and her excited voice made Akane regain her hold on reality.

"We have to bring her home!" The flaxen-haired young woman exclaimed. "Help me lift her!"

Akane crouched in the moist grass while they tried to drape Noriko over her back.  
The girl's soaked yukata had made her uncommonly heavy but somehow Akane managed to stand and lift her up while pulling Noriko's arms over her shoulders.

With Hanabi pushing up against Noriko's behind and pausing to readjust their load each time the little blonde slipped down, they slowly hauled the girl towards the meat shop her parents owned under the gaze of umbrella'd pedestrians and rickshaw drivers.

When they got there, Noriko's father and mother were beside themselves at the sight of their besmeared and soaked unconscious daughter.  
They washed Noriko in a tub of hot water and dressed her in a fresh blue kimono before her father brought her to her room and laid her on her futon amidst the self-designed dresses the blonde had displayed on wooden clothes racks.

Hanabi and Akane immediately went out to fetch a physician.  
The woman was occupied when they arrived, but when she heard what had happened she wasted no time in coming with them.

On the physician's orders, both young women got several buckets of water from the common tap outside in which they cooked Noriko's clothes.  
The girl's parents were told to strictly wash before coming in contact with other people and cook everything that had gotten into contact with the girl.

While the physician examined Noriko and talked to her parents Hanabi took Akane out to the nearby bathhouse so they could wash the dirt off themselves.

* * *

Akane rinsed herself after washing and stared at the tiled wall with the large picture of Mount Fuji the owner had recently got installed there.

Other sento's were commissioning similar decorations lately. One in Fujisawa town had it done just before she left to search for Hanabi.

She looked to her left and found the blackette had already entered the communal bath, her arm leaning on the wooden floor around the bath and her gaze in the distance, preoccupied with private pondering.

The letters Akane had read were still confusing her mind, but she was mostly concerned over how deeply Hanabi seemed to be affected by what had happened to her friend.

She got in the bath next to the younger woman and tried to relax in the hot water.

Akane wondered how Noriko had fallen in the river.  
She remembered how Mugi Awaya had been neglecting her on their date and afterward she hadn't come home yet by the time she and Hanabi had.

Hanabi had said that Noriko was very much in love with Mugi. Akane hoped the girl hadn't tried to end her life over that worthless boy.  
But that would be just the kind of thing she expected to befall a family associating with Burakumin on a daily basis.

* * *

After the bath, they visited Noriko's bedroom again.

The physician sat next to the girl on the tatami floor with the parents in front of her when Hanabi and Akane asked if they could come in.  
She told them that Noriko was very lucky not to have drowned in the stormy weather, but that she was worried about cholera infection from her swallowing river water.  
She sternly warned the father against opening the shop before she could rule that possibility out.

The woman told Noriko's parents that her fever and persisting unconsciousness could prove troublesome, but that they should have her drink as much as possible if she started to vomit or produced diarrhea.

Hanabi eagerly asked whether it would be alright if she kept and managed the shop in the father's place until the physician could be sure there was no threat of a cholera infection.  
Consent was given on condition that Hanabi did not come in contact with the patient or her parents and neither parent came into the shop or had contact with customers.

The two young women then went to the shop and Hanabi wrote down a list of orders for the slaughterhouse at the bamboo-wood counter. After that, she systematically wrote down all she needed to do before opening the shop on Monday.

Akane curiously noted that the blackette's handwriting was very different from the writing in the letters the arbitrator had shown her.  
She stepped towards the latticed front of the closed shop and looked at the busy street outside where once again rickshaws, pedestrians, and horse-drawn carriages were all trying not to bump into one another.

The rain seemed to have stopped.

Hanabi came and stood beside her.

"You need not stay here," She said.  
"I'm sorry you had to be a part of what happened. You shouldn't have had to help me..." She bowed deep.

Akane saw the girl grimace. To Hanabi's surprise, the older girl held her hand as she came up from her bow and smiled.

"I am glad I came in time to help," Akane smiled tremulously thinking of what she was planning to do to Hanabi when she found her. "I just want to be of use to you in this difficult time."

Hanabi held the older girl's gaze in disbelief. A moment later she shocked Akane's heart by hugging her fiercely.

"Thank you, Akane-chan. I truly am sorry. Thank you for your help, but please go home now. It is my responsibility to take care of this. I refuse to allow you to help me with this. I'm sorry," She bowed again.

"I understand," The flaxen-haired young woman blushingly nodded. "After all, I suppose there is not much I can do but be a bother. I'll leave you to manage things. I am sure you will do great, Hanabi-chan."

The blackette seemed unable to look Akane in the eyes when she led her through the kitchen and brought her outside through the small door at the side of the house.

They quietly bid each other a good day before Akane walked home past the shops and electricity poles.

* * *

When she arrived at her room in the inn she released herself from her clam kimono and dressed in the one she had worn for their hanami.

Akane tiredly sat down at her low table and studied the letters Hanabi had supposedly written with streaming eyes before tearing them to shreds.

Hanabi could never have written those letters. The handwriting was not alike at all. These were obvious forgeries.  
Hanabi was a sweet, kind young woman with a gentle soul who was overcome by other people's misfortune and tried to help where she could.

The person who wrote those letters was a cruel demon who wanted to poison Akane's mind and drive her to cowardly murder such a kind soul. And Akane was a wretch for ever considering to do so.

* * *

The week after that Akane didn't hear a thing from Hanabi. But that wasn't unusual. They generally only met up on their days off work. Sundays and holidays.  
But the following Wednesday, Akane heard the news that the daughter of the meat shop had died.

She didn't know whether she could believe the source, she often heard unfounded gossip. But she was worried about how, if true, Noriko's death would affect Hanabi.

Finally, on Friday she heard from several people that they had seen the funeral procession.

Akane was tense all Saturday. She wanted badly to be at Hanabi's side to comfort her, but she knew to intrude on the family now would be unwelcome and perhaps Hanabi would want to be alone for a while.

At last, Sunday came and she couldn't keep away any longer.

Akane used her acupuncture techniques to relax her mind and body before she dressed in an orange yukata with white obi and set out for the meat shop.

Hanabi looked very sedate when she opened the wooden door to let the taller girl into her room.  
Akane thought she looked tired.

She bowed and apologized for disturbing before following the blackette inside and sat next to her at the chabudai where Hanabi had already placed green lacquered teacups and a tea-pot in anticipation of the flaxen-haired young woman's visit.

Hanabi was wearing her yellow kimono with the Japanese rose design and a pink obi.

"I have been taking over most of the work in the shop and helped Noriko-chan's parents organize the burial.  
The death of their only child hit them hard... It's the least I can do to relieve them of as much work as I can," She told her visitor with averted eyes.

"You shouldn't take everything on yourself," Akane remonstrated. "From the sound of it you've been working non-stop for the last week."

"I can do this a while longer," Hanabi replied matter-of-factly. "I'm not doing much more work than usual. And I'm not that tired. I think I look worse than I feel because..."

Akane watched the young woman sigh after her voice trailed off.  
She really didn't look that bad perhaps. A little more pale than usual maybe and her hair hadn't been brushed as neatly as it should have been, but Hanabi still looked very cute.  
Akane wondered why she wouldn't look her in the eyes.

"How do you feel?" The flaxen-haired girl asked softly.

"I'm alright. I'm sad that Noriko died, but I've been busy, so I haven't had much time to let it get me down. I..."

The blackette sighed deeply. Akane could do nothing but stare at her lips.

"It's my fault..." Hanabi muttered. "It's my fault she died."

The hair on Akane's neck straightened up.

"What are you saying?" She protested. "What happened to her wasn't your fault. If it wasn't for you she would have died in the river all alone without her family and friends. You saved her."

"It was me who pushed for Awaya-san to bring her home... He...

She was afraid to go home afterward.  
She didn't know what to do. So she hid in the park until it became too cold for her to bear.  
That's when the Burakumin from the slaughterhouse found her and took her home.  
She was very quiet the days after that... But finally, she confided in me that Awaya-san had taken her to a room somewhere and forced himself upon her... "

Akane balled her fist. But Hanabi just continued talking without emotion. Like a water tap that kept running at a steady stream until someone turned it off.

"I was shocked and told her she needed to tell her parents who cared so much about her, but she clung to me in hysterics and told me she could never tell her parents such a horrible thing.

I told her that her parents were in a rare position to make the man who had done this to their daughter pay for violating her. But she kept crying and told me it was all her own fault because of how she had loved Awaya-san.  
She said he wasn't to blame and shouldn't be punished for making love to her when she turned coy."

"None of that is your fault, Hanabi-chan," Akane whispered fiercely while she observed the younger girl with a pallid expression and wide open eyes.

"But it is," The blackette calmly answered while she slowly ventured to look at her companion. "Noriko was so... naïve. She sought me out without reserve. She didn't have many friends, but she wanted to be mine.

She was the only person who ever sought my acquaintance, nay my friendship.  
She shared everything with me. She looked up to me. She asked for my help.  
But I didn't really help her at all. I was too selfish and I felt she was saying ridiculous things," Hanabi said, at last openly returning Akane's unguarded look.

"I was the one who spurred her on to doggedly pursue Awaya-san while not caring about what might happen to her. Therefore her death is partly my fault."

For a while, nothing was heard by them except the beating of their hearts and the rain outside. They just sat next to one another without thinking, without plotting, without trying to push the other into a role.  
Their eyes just sank into one another.

"Akane-chan..." Hanabi began and bowed. Preparing to apologize for burdening the older girl.

"You are not weeping," Akane interrupted her. Feeling somehow that this was significant.

Hanabi's eyes grew wide and her expression changed slowly into a smile.

"No," She replied.

And that smile was the most beautiful thing Akane had ever seen. It pulled on her. It made her feel dizzy. It made her feel weak. It made her feel heavenly.  
She was drawn in. She was sucked in by Hanabi. Her cheeks turned crimson, she was getting closer and closer to the younger woman.

But she was not aware of her actions. No, even if she had been aware, she would not have stopped.  
Akane was not in control of herself anymore.

Hanabi's sweet fragrance gently hit Akane's nostrils.

'I know the real Hanabi Yasuraoka.'

Akane's eyelids fell shut and in a fluent sudden motion her face closed the distance and found Hanabi's lips on hers.

At first, she didn't do more than that. A slight kiss and then she rested her head against the other girl's, closing her eyes while she nestled against the one she loved. But then she felt Hanabi kiss her back with such vigor that all the pain and strain she had experienced in the past week felt like it would overwhelm her as she lustfully kissed back.

With a shock, she sat up again, a face like a frightened deer, confusion taking her reason.

"Please accept my humble apology!" She agitatedly exclaimed with a sudden bow.

"Akane-chan," Hanabi tried, reaching out a hand. But Akane got up, opened the door and ran outside.  
Her heart had gone where her reason was not ready to tread yet.

* * *

She ran through the bright, sunlit street of teeming Tokyo with tears flowing down her cheeks.

At last Akane reached her room at the inn. She sat down at her table in a mental stupor, burying her head in her hands.

Her heart was pierced, penetrated, blood ran from every wound. It was more bitter than the scolding of Sarashi. More merciless than the mockery of Narumi Kanai.  
It eroded, penetrated, and broke down Akane herself.

'Why did I do that?' She asked herself. 'Why?'

Akane's soul raised a cry to heaven.  
She could only say that she did not understand herself anymore.  
She only knew that this was not how things were supposed to be.

She remembered being in Hanabi's room with the books in the cupboards all around and the green teacups on the table.  
Hanabi had been taxed more than a person should be taxed and now Akane had only given her more troublesome thoughts.

The blackette had suffered so much these last weeks and yet she had borne it all without complaint.  
Hanabi usually cried easily. She got dejected easily. Akane used to think that was part of her charm.  
But Akane didn't want to see the young woman weep ever again.

She wanted to take back what she had done, but how? Intense regret filled her.  
Feeling dejected by her own actions Akane's heart was broken into fine dust. She fell tumbling down a dark hole.  
She felt like melting and being washed away by the rain... She wished she was.

* * *

Another week went by during which Akane didn't hear or saw Hanabi.

During her work, the flaxen-haired young woman reflected on her feelings. Confirming them.

She liked Hanabi. Her black hair and periwinkle eyes. Her slender but firm body. Her delicate but nimble hands and feet.  
She really liked her.

She adored Hanabi's sweet low voice and expressive face.  
When she looked dejected it seemed like the whole world shrunk away and there was only you and her.  
When she smiled it felt like she made flowers bloom in your heart

She wanted to hug Hanabi. She really wanted to kiss her. She didn't think she could stop herself from kissing her all over when she saw the younger girl next.  
Because, in truth, rather than like Hanabi she loved her.

Hanabi was the most important person in her life. Far more important than her parents or even herself.  
Akane Minigawa loved Hanabi Yasuraoka with all of her heart.

The feelings Akane confirmed that day at work became engraved inside of her heart.  
The flaxen-haired girl had a quiet chuckle at her own expense to think that she off all people would fall so deeply in love with another person.  
Just by thinking about Hanabi, she felt giddy and strange and she was unable to control herself.  
It was warm and uncomfortable.

She had not known love could feel so wonderful.

'But what does Hanabi think of me? Would she accept these feelings?'

It was difficult for Akane. She had no friends. She did not know how someone could react to such a confession.  
Passion and severe pain pierced her heart so hard she could have ripped it out when she imagined Hanabi coldly rejecting her or confessing that she had fallen in love with another.

But that could not happen. And it did seem like Hanabi had kissed her back last time she saw her.

Above all, however, Akane had decided that she could not kill Hanabi anymore. Not even for the most desperate pleas and punishments her family or the Daimyo could heap on her.  
Even if the price of the punishment was her own life. She could not.

As much as possible she wanted to protect Hanabi. She wanted to end their participation in the ritual of divine selection.  
And whatever the outcome, she wanted to convey her feelings.

'Hanabi ... I like you. I love you.' She wanted to tell her this and to know Hanabi's feelings.

Akane's heart had decided.

Even if it would not end her confusion but send her adrift on a more tumultuous sea of emotions and inner conflict.

Suddenly Akane heard a great ruckus behind her.

Another girl had run away from the factory recently, trying to get back to her family in the country.  
Some of the overseers had gone in search for her and it seems they had succeeded in bringing her back.

Akane turned from her work and saw the girl being dragged in by her arms. Her head hung limp, her face besmeared with dirt, blood and probably tears.

Three overseers in grey and black western style suits dragged her to her workstation at the back of Akane's row and let her fall on the floor like an animal.

'This is how it always is,' Akane reflected. 'Those who have power use it to control the lives of others. Without any concern for their fate or feelings. They use that control to make the powerless amass wealth for them and give them only crumbs for their work and suffering.'

"Now get back to work!" One of the men shouted while he kicked the half-conscious girl in her besmeared green kimono with black stripes.

Akane gritted her teeth.

Another overseer turned his attention to the women and girls who were watching the spectacle.

"Hey, you! Get back to work! You'll lose points this way."

A few months ago, Akane wouldn't even have turned to look. She wasn't interested in the people she worked with. She wasn't interested in the people who controlled them.

Akane had changed. Hanabi had changed her.  
She had taken a liking to interact with her coworkers and they liked her for it.

When she first came here Akane believed in the things she had been taught.  
She believed she had been raised and trained to bring fortune to her family.  
She had believed Hanabi Yasuraoka had to die for her to accomplish her fate.  
She believed that was her destiny and her duty to her parents.

Her parents, who had always controlled her life. Who had never shown any concern for her feelings or Hanabi's fate.  
Her parents who used their control to make Akane amass them wealth through her work and suffering.

Just like Narumi Kanai, who kept pestering and torturing her.  
Narumi who used his control in the most despicable ways in order to ensure Akane's victory because he lusted after her.

Just like their Daimyo who was risking all of their lives in a desperate bid to stop the future and amass more wealth for himself.

"Hey! Leave that girl alone, you've almost killed her!"

Everybody in the factory looked at Akane.

She got on her feet and watched the overseers who had gathered around the girl they had brought back with furious eyes.

"Get back to work, all of you!" One of the men shouted.

They all turned towards Akane and glared threateningly at her.

"Stop beating that girl!" Akane insisted. "If you beat her anymore you'll kill her!"

"Mind your own business!" The men shouted. "Get back to work! This girl cost us much labor! You will all have to work harder to make up for it!"

Some of the older girls started to murmur among themselves.

"I produce three times as much as the girl you are killing!" Akane yelled. "Do you want to lose my labor too?!"

The men started to look at each other nervously. They knew Akane could pretty much leave whenever she wanted to. They had no such power over her as they had over the other girls who had been put in debt to their master through deceit.  
And Akane was one of the hardest workers in the factory.

"What are you talking about?!" One of them exclaimed. "We're not killing anyone! You are overreacting. This girl will be alright. Let's all go back to work and everything will be alright!"

Akane glared at the men and before she could think any further she started to walk between the heaps of finished and unfinished bamboo baskets to the beige shoji at the other end of the large factory-room.

The men cautiously tried to surround her.  
Akane knew this was going to end badly for her, but she wasn't able to stop what she had started now.  
She was afraid, but she would certainly not go down easily.

The wooden floorboards creaked as the other woman in the room all got up at once.

Suddenly, to Akane's surprise all the girls in the factory gathered around her, blocking the men's access to her.  
The overseers watched the large group nervously.

"What's going on?! All of you! Go back to work now!"

"We are all going to the dormitories!" One of the women shouted defiantly. "And we will not come out by threats, nor pleading nor force until the girl you beat into that state has been treated in the hospital!"

All of the women now shouted their outrage and resolve while they marched in group toward the shoji, opened it and walked out of the factory mad as hell, dragging Akane with them.

The overseers were helpless to their action. Unable to do anything but look on.  
Akane had unintentionally become the figurehead of a strike.

* * *

The more confident and intelligent of the women had actually been preparing for something like this for a while, secretly stacking water, conserves and rice in the dormitories for a time when they felt strong enough to walk out of the factory together.

But Akane and the overseers had given them an opportunity they never could have dreamt of to inspire all the girls at once into a brazen act of defiance.

They all kept themselves shut in the dormitories with Akane.

It was a rough time. But it was a period in her life that Akane would always remember fondly.

There were several attempts to storm into the rooms.

The owners of the factory meanwhile had to send men to the country to get new girls who then had to be taught by men who didn't know the work as well as the women who were on strike. All of which caused delays to the orders and cost the owners lots of money.

At last, the police was called in to talk to the leaders of the strike.

Threats were made to the effect of adding the money lost to the debt the girl's had already incurred with their employer, but the leaders had a better hold on the other girls than the police had counted on and the strikers stated that the overseers were unjust and violent and that they feared for their lives in the factory.

The leaders maintained that only when the girl that had been beaten so severely came back from the hospital safe and sound would they return to work.

At last, after two weeks, the girl in question returned from her stay in the hospital and was welcomed with open arms by her friends.

As promised, the women returned to work. But as soon as they approached the factory the leaders of the strike were denied entrance.  
The owners had them replaced by the best performing of the girls that had been called to replace them during the strike.

The violent overseers had also been fired in the interim and the new overseers were ordered to stay their hand or lose their job.

Akane lost her job as well.  
In the end, the owners of the factory decided that her surplus production capacity wasn't worth the risk of her potentially causing more trouble.

* * *

All this time Akane hadn't been able to see Hanabi. But Hanabi had been the person most on her mind the entire time.

She should have packed to return home after losing her employment. It was nearly time to return home in any case since the date of the ritual was coming near.

That Sunday Akane prepared nervously to go and visit Hanabi and confess all of her feelings and desires to her.  
She was frightened and jittery. Even though she was a highly skilled warrior who was not afraid of death she felt queasy in her stomach.

If she could communicate her feelings and Hanabi could forgive her for kissing her and running away that day she was sure everything would be alright.

But then Hanabi unexpectedly came up to her room. Akane slid the shoji open and let her in.  
Their eyes met and Akane's heart jumped into her throat.

Hanabi's black hair was bound with a white ribbon. Purple eye shadow accentuated her wide open periwinkle eyes.

Akane's body overflowed with joy. She walked up to Hanabi timidly, she embraced her passionately.  
Hanabi blushed. They were both speechless.

They awkwardly sat while Akane prepared tea.

Gradually they started to loosen up. Akane apologized. Hanabi said she did not remember that day.

They both behaved very awkwardly. Akane's palms were sweaty, her heart beat violently. She felt so embarrassed she might have run away. She felt close to crying and her chest felt constricted.

Then Hanabi smiled. "We've had fun didn't we?"

And Akane smiled too. They were the same. Two young girls who liked each other and enjoyed one another's company.  
Reminiscing about everything they had done together in the time they had reserved for themselves. A time they were in control of.

This was their precious last day together, but it was not over yet. One really important thing remained to be done.  
Akane needed to bare her heart.

She liked Hanabi, she loved her. So she could not kill her.  
She was frightened, she was anxious. But there was no regret.

Even if her feelings were not shared by Hanabi.

Just thinking her name made the flaxen-haired young woman feel warm and fuzzy.  
But deep inside her heart, there was still a small grain of doubt.

It was not like the cold sting of Sarashi. Or the frustrated anger Narumi engendered within her. Akane suspected it was the ordinary anxiety of a girl in love.

She was still a warrior. But the fate she had been raised for was not hers anymore. She had chosen a different fate for herself.  
Why could she not have realized these feelings sooner? Then she could have enjoyed her time with Hanabi more.

"It really is a beautiful painting, isn't it?" Hanabi asked as she got up and watched the picture displayed on Akane's richly decorated portable wooden cabinet.

The flaxen-haired young woman smiled and got up to admire Hanabi's present from up close while the younger woman stood to her left.

There was no trace of the vicious grin on Hanabi's face in the painting she had imagined that day the arbitrator had tried to deceive her. Akane saw all of Hanabi's inherent kindness reflected in her representation.

"I was so nervous about my plan to neutralize the physical advantage you have over me back when I proposed that painting to you, but seducing you quickly proved to be child's play."

Akane heard Hanabi's voice behind her ear trough a haze like needles of ice.

"I believe you wanted to kill me before when I tried to save Noriko. Didn't you?"

Akane heard Hanabi's voice as if it was coming from far away. She heard her rummage in the drawers of her cupboard.

She remembered the letters the arbitrator had shown her and slowly turned around as it felt like an ice-cold dagger was being stabbed through her heart.

"I felt I needed to make things clear to you before we left for home.  
I am still disappointed about one thing though: How could you just run away so suddenly after we kissed? I was really curious to kiss another girl and you left after our lips barely touched.

How shameful of you," Hanabi pouted casually.

without a care in the world, with a bright smile. Like a flower.  
The brightness of her eyes was the light that Akane had been enchanted by. Sweet. Warmly. Softly.

It gently infiltrated her heart. A smile like a rising sun.

"But the time for games is over now," The blackette continued while she held out the tanto she had been searching for in the older girl's belongings to Akane. "You can try to kill me again now Akane. At least... If you still have a taste for it."

Ambush and deceit have always been used by the girls who participated in the ritual of divine selection. How much damage they could bring to their opponent before they met in the duel often proved decisive in achieving victory.

Akane stared in disbelief at the girl she loved more than life itself.  
In two weeks time, they would face one another again with drawn swords.

* * *

A crowd was gathering in a theater in the city of Fujisawa-Osaka in honor of the man they still regarded as their Daimyo.

For his sons twentieth birthday, two daughters of his most revered samurai were laying their lives and fate in the hands of the Gods.  
They were going to fight to the death on stage to decide who would become the wife of the Daimyo's son.

The black-haired girl and flaxen-haired girl were dressed in white kimono and purple-colored obi before they took to the stage. Each was given a single katana.  
Both wore a stern, determined expression.

Amidst the murmurs of the crowd, all they had done together was to be forgotten. No mercy would be shown.

The cheers of the crowd were bouncing off the walls and cluttered together in Akane's ears as she appeared before them.  
She felt nauseated by the smell the sand they had strewn on the floor to catch the fighter's blood and the various colors of the yukata the spectators were dressed in.

Every sensation around and inside Akane got mixed and mangled by her brain.  
Everything cluttered together to stick to her skin, to her very soul, becoming a thick smoke that separated her from the world around her until she looked around and everyone looked the same.

Akane was the actor on this stage, but it was as if she was also the audience. As if she was everyone at the same time.  
No. She recognized another face. The face of Hanabi Yasuraoka. The grave of Akane Minigawa.

There was only Amaterasu Gozen now.

The crowd was cheering, it was suffocating, but Akane had been trained for this. Her entire life had been devoted to this moment.  
The malicious cheers stirred her heart. Her consciousness started to gather itself.  
She stared at the young woman in front of her.

"I was really curious to kiss another girl and you left after our lips barely touched.  
How shameful of you."

Inside the walls of Fujisawa town's beautiful kabuki theater, Hanabi's parting words still haunted Akane. But still, she could not stir herself into action.

'Yes... I have a sword. The arbitrator is standing out there. People are laughing and cheering. Why can't I gather my thoughts? I have to do something!'

Akane tried with all her might to gather the fragments of her consciousness that were scattered among the ruckus around her and the turmoil inside of her.

Hanabi approached. She lashed out with her sword. Akane easily repulsed her attack.

Again the blackette struck. Too slow.

Akane searched her memory. It certainly seemed that there was a moment when she felt a similar dullness.  
Was it that morning when she went searching for Hanabi barefoot in the rain?  
She had felt empty and miserable. But that was not the same.  
In the depths of her soul, there had been bitter pain and suffering as if she had been torn and penetrated by hundreds of millions of needles.

It was different now. Neither sadness nor pain was present. Just a phenomenon. She felt lonely and dull.

The sound of the clashing blades brought Akane back to reality. Her family shouted in anger.

"What are you doing?!" "Watch your opponent! Attack Uzume Gozen!"

'What am I doing? What do I want to do?'

'Will I teach you?'

Akane heard a cold distorted voice.

She remembered the familiar voice. Like a flash of light. Like a sharp tanto.

A voice that had risen out of the confusion of her youth and perforated Akane's soul, bound and bound her and made her see the bleakness of the world for what it is.

A ruthless, merciless voice that showed the path through to her destiny through this bleakness.

Sarashi was the bleakness that had bound Akane and build her up to the warrior she had become after Amane's betrayal had left her with the feeling of dullness and emptiness she remembered that felt exactly as she had felt ever since she last saw Hanabi.

In the color-drawn wasteland of her soul, Akane asked Sarashi: 'Teach me what?'

'What you truly want to do.'

'What I really want to do?'

'To judge.'

'Judge?'

'Who betrayed you.'

'Me?'

'Who was the one who betrayed those pure feelings? Warmer than the sun at midday, fresher than the gentle wind. A beautiful treasure rarer than any gem. Emotions you experienced for the first time in your life.  
The pleasure of hugging someone you value more than yourself.  
Yes, that 's right. That feeling.

Do I need to say more? There should not be any reason for hesitation.'

Sarashi stuck to Akane, coiling around her like a snake. She was more violent than any storm.  
Like hundreds of millions of spears falling like rain, she struck Akane's heart and emptied it of all feeling.

But, no matter how bleak it grew there was still one color left inside of Akane.

'Why can you not see clearly? The world Hanabi showed you was a mirage. A fabrication. The arbitrator was right. He tried to warn you.

Hanabi is no different from Amane. She deceived you. Preyed on you. She tricked you in order to win the ritual of divine selection.

Deceive the enemy. It is a wonderful weapon that exists since ancient times. A weapon you have been taught about.  
So it was you: Akane Minagawa, who was wrong in believing the lies you were being fed.

You alone were dancing blindly in the middle of a garden of dreams. Like a stupid little girl who knows nothing of the world.'

As of old, Sarashi's bleak truth purified Akane's heart and healed her reason. It cleared her mind.

'You are me? I am you?'

'Come back. Akane who has been torn asunder. Regain your correct shape.'

Akane's arm no longer felt heavy. It no longer felt as if pricked by a thousand needles. She gripped her sword.

"Yes!" Akane murmured with a cold glare. "I, Akane Minagawa, am Amaterasu Gozen."

Sparks flew. Blades clashed. The spirit of battle flashed in Akane's eyes.

Hanabi fought hard, but she had not received the kind of training Akane had. Her clothes were torn, her blood was drawn.

"You are very nice. You are much kinder than any boy and much more dependable."

A lock of hair was cut off.

"It is beautiful Akane-chan. Can I keep it?"

Hanabi evaded a fierce uncontrolled strike.

"I love you"

'In the sunny brightness of the park, thousands of colors penetrated this heart! I embraced you in these arms! You made me experience feelings that I had never known before! Brittle, bitter and sweet feelings! My heart sang like a bird.! I loved you with my entire heart!'

Akane violently attacked Hanabi who desperately defended herself.

'Why do I not feel satisfied?!'

Sarashi drove Akane into a heightened frenzy.

'The wounds you are causing her must hurt. But she has hurt you much more.

When you went to the theater.  
When you went to the park.  
When you posed for a painting.  
When you walked the streets together.

All the time that girl laughed at you behind your back.'

'And I was drunk. I, Amaterasu Gozen. I walked right into her trap. I wished deep in my heart for it to be true. I wanted to fall in love with Hanabi Yasuraoka.'

Hanabi received a shallow wound in her shoulder.

'She can cry all she wants, it won't do her any good now.' Sarashi whispered.

But Hanabi Yasuraoka, Uzume Gozen fought on in spite of the wounds she was receiving. Again she tried to strike and again.

Akane remembered all the days they had spent together. The days spent at the theater. The days at the park.  
Hanabi reading aloud from her books.

'Strike it all out. Wipe it all from your memory and your heart. Erase all that stands in the way of your destiny!  
And then the real Akane will rise again. Amaterasu Gozen!'

Another series of violent clashes ensued.

Then, a well-aimed attack caused Hanabi to lose her sword. It fell softly in the bloodied sand.

'Well done,' Sarashi's voice whispered troughout the bleak wasteland she had made of Akane's mind. 'Let's finish this. You are still hesitating, but it can not be helped. There is an end to everything. Just do what you need to do.'

'I have never felt so empty. There are only tears and sadness inside me now. But it's okay. Let's finish this quickly.'

'Then... why is your body refusing to move? Why do you keep yourself from striking down? Why? For whom?  
Why do you resist?'

A single red tear formed inside of the bleakness of Akane's mind... And dropped down into the void.

The crowd cheered. They roared.

'Why?'

Moist periwinkle eyes reflected Akane's appearance.

The flaxen-haired girl's sword fell to the floor as the blackette's hand invaded the magnetic field of her body. A vital spot was stimulated.  
Akane gasped in shock as she recognized the sensation produced by the technique of mesmerism. The secret weapon of Uzume Gozen.

All the aggressive power that had kept Akane fighting now failed her. Blood escaped her body as Hanabi quietly walked past her defeated opponent and off the stage to join her cheering family.

'I am dying,' Akane reflected. 'It is the end. This is what death feels like.  
I have trained for this duel during the greater part of my life, and then I thought I found a friend and wanted to protect the girl I loved.  
But in the end, I was deceived, trampled, filled with tears and pain.

I lost everything. I could not protect you. I'm sorry... But, in fact, I knew from the beginning that I could not do it.'

A strange vast blackness was spreading over Akane' mind. As always the natural predator of the color white, it swallowed all of the bleakness contained in there.

'Not yet, I cannot fall down yet. Before being swallowed by the darkness of death I still have something to do.'

The girl with the flaxen hair smiled while a deafening uproar filled the theater. The light had nearly left her hazel eyes.

"I love you Hanabi."

The last confession of heartfelt feelings.

There was no one to hear her words.

As a smiling Hanabi was embraced by her mother and father Akane fell down in the sand on the floor.

* * *

A few days later a new morning started in Fujisawa-Osaka.

A large group had gathered on the beach in black kimono's around a pine casket under a wooden roof protected from the wind by a white cloth fence.

The Kirishima Daimyo honored Akane's parents with his attendance at the cremation of their daughter.  
Also present were his son Atsuya Kirishima and the young man's future bride Hanabi Yasuraoka who the next day would undergo an extensive purification ritual.

Hanabi was silent. Still, like a statue. She stared blankly at the burning coffin.  
Atsuya observed her lack of emotion with a frown.

Clearly, he had misjudged this girl as dull. Rather he would have to be careful his wife would not deceive him if it suited her.  
But such a marriage would at least be lively

"I have to confess," He whispered while the flames crackled. "I would have liked to have made love to that body."

For a fleeting moment, a smirk seemed to appear on Hanabi's lips, but it was barely noticeable.

"However, as my father said, a clever wife may be more practical than an attractive one."

Across the burning coffin, Hanabi Yasuraoka's periwinkle eyes met Narumi Kanai's bespectacled stare.  
The victor of the ritual of divine selection knew that the war against her destiny was not over yet.

* * *

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Akane was lying on a bed of flowers. She was smiling. Enveloped by a scent that made her heart sing. A rare softness all around her.

She didn't know where she was exactly, but that didn't matter. She didn't know who she was, but she didn't need to know.  
All she wanted was to stay like this. Happy. If she could just stay this way forever. Happily ever after.

The familiar fragrance filled her nostrils. It made her feel high.

But suddenly there was a sadness. The sadness was fed by the scent. A bittersweet feeling deep inside started to mingle with the happy feeling.

'Should it be like this in the afterlife?' Akane asked herself. 'I don't mind the numbness of memory. I don't mind forgetting who I am. But I don't like this sadness.'

The sadness gained intensity through persisting fragrance. The flaxen-haired girl felt moisture filling her eyelids.

'Should I feel this way if I am in the afterlife? Should I be aware of a body? Have I become a ghost?'

Akane moved her head and light hit her eyelids. Moisture was shed as she opened her eyes.

The much too bright electric light in the room showed her a bookcase to her left.  
As she lifted her head she saw a tokonoma filled with a little Tanuki statue in front of her and a western style door in the same wall further to the right.  
In the middle of the room, to her right, was a high round table with two chairs and further to her right, two more bookcases were lined up against the wall.

A painting of two girls had been placed on the table.

Akane stirred. Her flaxen hair fell over her arm. She recognized her surroundings and the painting. This was not the afterlife. This was a hell all too familiar.

"How?"

She got up, drawing aside the soft duvet. She looked at the painting and shed more tears.  
The memories came back to her. All too painful. A stifled cry escaped her lips.  
Sinking onto her knees she cried bitter tears. Crying freely for the first time. Letting go of the pain in her tattered heart.

Suddenly she was startled by someone knocking on the door. The flaxen-haired girl didn't react. Her first instinct was to get up and defend herself.

But she reflected on her situation for the first time. She was alive. Someone had cleaned her and brought her here.  
Someone had put her to bed on a soft pillow and a fresh futon.  
That someone must want her no harm. She didn't see what anyone could gain by keeping her.

Deep inside her, an impossible hope rose. A tiny weak seed sprouted. It was a seed fed by the tears of her shredded heart. It was the birth of a new life.

A man came in cautiously. Akane recognized his kind mustachioed face.  
It was the owner of the meat shop. The father of Noriko Kamomebata.  
The tall handsome man bowed deeply to Akane.

"My apologies Ebato-san. I heard you scream. I came here as fast as possible. I must ask you not to make any noise.  
Nobody must know you are here. You must not draw attention to yourself.

I was told to give you your new name. Ebato Sanae.  
It is the name my wife and I will know you under and we will address you as such, so you may grow accustomed to it.

I must ask you not to go out Ebato-san. Please, do not leave the room. You are safe here. We will take care of all your needs.  
If there is anything you need you may ring the bell at any moment and we will come. We will come to bring your food and to empty your bedpan regularly. Please remain here and wait for Yasuraoka-san to arrive."

Something stirred deep within Akane's heart. A sweet, soft sensation spread throughout. The sprout took root.

"A plan has been prepared to bring both of you to safety. I was asked to beg your apologies and to beg to trust where trust is undeserved."

The meat shop owner stood upright and smiled.

"We haven't forgotten how you and Yasuraoka-san saved our dear Noriko and brought her back to us, Ebato-san," He said with tears in his eyes. You can trust us."

Noriko's father brought tea and souper. Afterward, his wife came and took away the beautiful blue-and-white bowls and cups.  
She brought a bowl of water and red dye. The woman applied the dye to Akane's hair, working it in deeply.  
She dressed her in a beautiful white kimono with a red obi.

"This was the first dress my dear Noriko ever made. But it is too large for me. Please accept it as a gift for saving my daughter," The woman bowed.

Sanae sat at the table after she left, looking at the painting of her and Hanabi. New feelings were filling her.  
To be cared for. To have people worry about her. To be kindly treated because someone liked her.

Tears gathered again in Sanae's eyes. But these were different tears. Their taste was not bitter. They did not sting. They fed the root that grew on the grave of her tattered heart.

Sanae looked around and got up.  
She saw the magazines in Hanabi's cupboard and chuckled, thinking she should rearrange them all to spite the younger girl.  
She picked a book from the shelf, read the tile and put it down again.

She moved towards another cupboard. It had origami displayed on it. Cats, cranes, butterflies, cherry blossoms, lilies.  
The origami she had folded with Hanabi. She picked up a crane.

"It is beautiful Akane-chan. Can I keep it?"

Her eyes filled up again and the fragile little plant in her heart trembled, but it had grown a bud. And from that bud grew a single little red flower.

Sanae Ebato wanted to believe so much. She wanted to trust. She put the origami back and wiped away her tears.  
There was far more origami than before. They seemed decorated.  
No. There were characters on them. The origami was marked with letters, sentences, words.

Sanae took them from the bookcase and unfolded them one by one. They were numbered.  
She put the pages in the correct order. These were words written by Hanabi.

Sanae knew the characters might hurt her. Hurt like spikes inside her soul.  
But she felt a longing.  
Even though the characters had spikes they were words from Hanabi. And most of all Sanae wanted to be close to Hanabi again.

She wanted to know Hanabi's heart. So she traced the characters to their source.

* * *

In Fujisawa-Osaka town, in a room in an ordinary wooden row house, Hanabi was sitting on a soft zabuton at a dark oak chabudai reflecting on her past and her future while she was dressed in a simple light-blue kimono with a white obi.

Atsuya Kirishima appeared before the sliding door and asked for permission to enter.

"Please excuse me for disturbing," He bowed as he slid the door closed behind him.

He was dressed in dark blue trousers and a vest with a white shirt underneath. The man who would become Hanabi's husband looked relaxed and happy.  
But then he had always looked relaxed.

"I was wondering whether there was something you desired on your last day as an unwed woman.  
You see I am not an unkind man," He gave her a dull smile.

"You have given our friends a great spectacle.  
You have worked hard these past years in order to ensure your victory.  
This is the last day you will stay at your parent's house. I would like to make every contribution I can to make this last day evening under the roof of your parents a special occasion for you so that you have no regrets when going through the wedding ceremony."

Hanabi smiled and bowed submissively.

"Thank you for care, Kirishima-sama. I greatly appreciate your kindness.  
However, the only thing I would like is to spend my last day in this house in solitude and remember all the happiness I have enjoyed here so that I am inspired by the example set by my parents to become the greatest source of happiness to your household that I can be."

Atsuya smiled.

"Such is to be expected from a woman. I understand these feelings and I appreciate them.  
Do not worry. Your parents will be well provided for after our marriage. But your devotion to them is exemplary.  
I expect us to make one another very happy. Enjoy your last day under this roof in all privacy."

He left after that, and she was once more left to mull over the events of the past year.  
There was no victory however. Not yet. And he would never understand how hard she had worked all of her life, how she had feared for her life, how painful it had been.  
Even though these past months had all been a game.

The blackette had always been an outsider in her village.

Her life had always been planned for her by the people who were in control of her destiny.

But that had all changed drastically on the day she met Akane Minigawa for the first time about twelve years ago.

What had happened back then was about to affect not just her own life and Akane's, but the fate of the entire Empire

What happened back then had been the decisive moment in a war between a girl and her fate.

Because from the start, the train of events that had been underway since that day and which would soon reach its destination had been set in motion and carefully conducted by Hanabi Yasuraoka.

* * *

End credits: Battotai March

watch?v=-kBQ6lHKTEc


	5. Chapter 5

That evening, from the time when a kodachi was pointed at her throat and the air was so tense it seemed like she could hear a violin's E-string vibrato, for Hanabi Yasuraoka, the game on which outcome her life depended began.

"You are the only other person who can understand this wish!" Was what Hanabi had boldly exclaimed to the person who was threatening her.

This was a tremendously big bet. Hanabi Yasuraoka had never been a physically strong person.  
Contrary to the parents of Akane Minigawa Hanabi's parents had always been curiously complacent when it came to her participation in the ritual of divine selection.

It was this complacency that had brought their fortune low.

It was this complacency that had led them to pledge the life of their daughter to the ritual of divine selection in the hope that her marriage would replenish their fortune.

It was this complacency that had led them to believe that their daughter's eventual victory would come about without any effort on their part.

That is why by the time she was able to reflect on her fate Hanabi Yasuraoka realized that she was never going to be able to catch up to the strength and technique her rival Akane Minigawa had gathered through years of training by the master swordsmen employed by her parents.

It was as if she had been thrown in the sea from a boat as a child and was told to reach the shore on her own powers.  
That is how Hanabi had experienced her fate.

So in order to not only save her life but to wreak her revenge on all those who were responsible for her fate and all those who had shunted her for it she was resolved to do just that.

At the age of eight, Hanabi Yasuraoka vowed to herself that she would fight her fate all on her own and would end up victorious.

'The other party who I am going to have to deceive is the rest of the world. But it is alright because I know I can trust nobody and nobody would expect me capable of even dreaming this.'

Shunted as she was by the entire village for being tainted by her fate she had always been an outcast, an invisible.  
So she used that invisibility and quickly learned to go anywhere she wanted without being noticed.  
She tried as frequently as she could to observe the lessons Akane received from her teachers and did her best to emulate what she saw and heard.

But knowing that she would never become her rival's equal Hanabi finally devised a plan to turn the balance in her favor. The ultimate gamble.

And on that cold evening, after having run away from home knowing Akane would follow and find her, Hanabi wrested all control over her life back from fate.

Dry throat, sweaty palms, a beating hard. All had to be controlled by her willpower. It was no different than training for combat.

"It doesn't matter. Nobody else will hurt you. You are mine to kill," Akane had coldly stated.

'Do not weep, do not tremble, be quiet and gentle. Even though the murderous intent of the other person is clear.'

Scary...

Akane Minagawa's eyes looked like they were forged from steel. They reflected Hanabi's powerlessness.  
She felt like a small animal at the mercy of a wild beast in the forest.

But it was in Hanabi's nature to be able to find a source of merriment in any situation. She took pleasure in what she had already achieved without doing anything at all.

Hanabi was looking death in the face and she could see quite clearly what she had long suspected:

The face of death became flustered when confronted with her. It was very cute.

Hanabi Yasuraoka was never a physically strong person, but she had one talent that had always served her well.  
It was a weapon she had cultivated through 12 years of silent scorn, fear, and loneliness.  
Although it could be mercilessly cut off by the blade of Akane it was a potent weapon.

Patience.

Hanabi smiled. A moment passed between the two girls. The dagger did not move.  
Still, she was not careless nor sighed in relief. And when she insisted that her attacker gave an answer to her request Akane's embarrassment and confusion were as clear as day.

Although it was very small, only a beginning, Hanabi had once again turned a dangerous situation into a success.  
Amaterasu Gozen did not know yet. But this was Uzume Gozen's first victory.

And so, for seven months, Hanabi walked the tightrope.

Seven months in which she employed every art she possessed in order to win her game of deception. Against Akane, against Narumi, against her parents, against her destiny.

Seven months during which, at the eve of Japan's rise among the dominant nations of the world, the future of that nation lay in the balance.

* * *

It was bright but cold outside on the morning when Hanabi was about to set off to clarify the purpose of her proposal to her adversary Akane Minigawa.

As she closed the wooden western style door to her room, holding the bento for Akane and her in a linen cloth, Hanabi was accosted by the daughter of her employer on her way out.

"Yasuraoka-san! Are you going out?"

The girl stood at a respectful distance. Hanabi felt she wanted to hug, but was too shy for the familiarity.

"Noriko-chan!" The blackette freely embraced the suddenly blushing girl, who didn't know whether it was right to allow an employee to act so familiarly.  
"I am going to visit a childhood friend of mine. It's been so long since I saw her," Hanabi smiled warmly. "She loves me so much she sought all over for me. I'm dying to see her again."

"Oh, it must be nice to be so close to someone," Noriko commented while rocking her body from left to right in a way that attracted attention to the dress Hanabi knew the other girl wanted her to compliment.

"Hmhm. Have you breakfasted yet? You seem only half-dressed," Hanabi asked in feigned wonder.  
Her friend blushed but didn't catch on to being the but of a joke.

"Ah, Yes! I already ate. This is a dress I made for the summer. I wanted to ask what you think of it. I wanted to create a mix of a yukata and a British summer dress."

The dress Noriko was wearing looked like a purple chemise with cream-colored peacock decorations.  
The blonde certainly had a talent for dressmaking, but Hanabi was sometimes amused by her more "original" ideas.  
She took a few steps back and regarded the younger girl with wide-open eyes.

"Oh my! It does look very light and easy. You'll be the talk of the town if you wear that to a matsuri!" She exclaimed with hidden sarcasm.

"Thank you for your praise," Noriko bowed, looking very pleased. "Are you taking a present to your friend?" She asked curiously.

"Ah, yes. I made us a bento for lunch. Akane-chan is a picky eater," The blackette smiled at the wooden floor. "So I did my best to prepare something yummy."

"Lunch?!" Noriko exclaimed. "Then I will not keep you much longer. It's already a quarter past eleven."

"It is? Thank you," Hanabi bowed. "I must hurry."

* * *

After taking her leave, Hanabi calmly walked towards Akane's lodgings,

wearing clothes that had seemed to attract Akane's attention when she had seen the younger woman wearing them in Fujisawa town.  
A blue kimono with a purple obi that contrasted with her naturally pale skin. A purple ribbon in her black bobbed hair.

Hanabi had been born with an appearance that according to the countless novels she had read made her look emotionally fragile, innocent, naive and in need of protection.  
She had decided to exploit those condescending notions to their fullest.

She would act according to these notions and thereby give Akane a sense of superiority and a feeling that Hanabi was a girl who was vulnerable to the evils of the world at any time.

But she would take care not to overdo it and become a nuisance.  
If Akane lost her taste for the game and for Hanabi it would be over quickly.  
She would not have killed her opponent in public off course, but the eventual outcome would be the same.

Scary...

A cold sensation was always present while Hanabi wore her mask. Fear of death always accompanied her wherever she went with Akane.

'Calm down. You can do this. This is no different from the mask you have been wearing for the greater part of your life. Only the stakes have been raised. But you have two great advantages now:  
You know the enemy and you know the battlefield. So you should use them to the fullest.'

Hanabi had read lots of books on strategy.  
While Akane was being trained by teachers employed by her parents Hanabi had only her own wit and judgment to rely on.  
She had shadowed Akane and stolen what she could by observation. What she couldn't observe she had tried to learn from books.

'Amaterasu Gozen is a born warrior, but that girl does not know me. She does not know my true heart.  
I, on the other hand, know her very well.'

Finally, Hanabi had arrived at the picturesque inn where Akane lived.  
A sprawling two-story building with beige plastered walls, a karahafu gable over the entrance and a blue-lacquered clay tiled roof.

After exchanging her clogs for slippers in the genkan and ascending the steep stairs she was allowed entrance by Akane.  
The older girl opened the shoji to Hanabi, standing in front of her with a proud mien.

Dazzling flaxen hair, sharp hazel eyes. Long, muscular arms and legs. Skin like porcelain.  
She was a very beautiful young woman whose appearance invited the admiration of all. The flower of Fujisawa-Osaka.

But there was no warmth in those beautiful, dreamy hazel eyes. Only the glint of a vizor searching for a heart to puncture.

'Are you the one targeting Amaterasu Gozen's heart? Or is it you who is being observed? Are those eyes not scanning you for weakness?

Are you not flitting around like a little butterfly that is stupidly attracted by a beautiful flower, unaware that it is merely the lure of a merciless carnivorous plant.'

That may have been the case with the men Akane used to seduce in the past, but it was Hanabi's plan to turn the flaxen-haired girl into the butterfly and play the role of the carnivorous flower herself.

"Yasuraoka-san, What did you mean by becoming friends?"

Hanabi observed the blush the older girl couldn't hide as she asked that question.  
It was the color of success, but she wondered if she was not being a little too familiar.  
Akane was proud and she had seemed annoyed at Hanabi's unrestrained manner of speaking.

Hanabi had wanted to destroy all barriers between them from the start. She was starting to doubt the wisdom of that strategy now, but she had decided to use any means at her disposal to exploit the curious feelings she knew to exist in her rival's heart and cultivate them into something much stronger.

Indifference was dangerous, annoyance might be even more so, but Hanabi was not one to get discouraged easily.  
For now, she would persevere on the path she had set herself out to follow.

Hanabi told Akane that her parents had sent her some money thanks to the letter she had sent to the arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection.

That was also a lie.

The older girl had written that Hanabi had found an occupation in Tokyo, though she had omitted the nature of her employment.  
So Hanabi's parents thought their daughter had all the money she needed.

That part was true after all, though the parents of the blackette had no idea about it.

Hanabi's mother had a niece who had died young, and when Hanabi was a teen her aunt's widower sometimes visited his family in Fujisawa-Osaka for a day at the beach.  
But after a while, he and Hanabi's mother had an irreparable falling out. She never saw him again nor did she care to. And the feeling was more than mutual.

Hanabi had made sure to get his new address in Kyoto.  
The man was a miser and a recluse, but he was honest and could be trusted to never betray his love of money.

Ever since she had made her resolve to fight her fate, Hanabi had been saving the money her parents gave her to buy clothes and planned to invest her savings later on.  
She had read up on the matter as much as she could and followed the economic news in her father's Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun.

But she was a minor of course, and a woman.  
So in order to invest her capital the consent of her father would have been required.

Problem...

That is why Hanabi took another major gamble and wrote to her uncle.  
She told him she had a business proposal for him and advised an investment to him.  
If he was interested she would be waiting for a telephone call from him at the post office a month later.

He called, and a week later she sent him half the money she had saved.  
It wasn't much, but through the years the investments he made on her behalf and on her advise turned it into a good sum and gained him even greater profit.

Hanabi knew he didn't care about her or anybody but his sister perhaps. But he could be trusted to keep their secret from the entire world and sent her money from the account he kept for her when asked.

As long as she could keep him happy he would keep her happy. It was a mutually beneficial business relationship.  
The money he allowed her to make would come in handy now and in the future. Not just for financing her outings with Akane.

There was so much in Tokyo that brought joy to Hanabi's heart. Her excuse for coming here had only been partly that.  
She had always wanted to freely enjoy the sights and treats of the capital.  
And if she managed to survive the summer and the fall of her enemies it wouldn't be prudent to show herself in Kanto for a very long time.

The theaters of Asakusa had been wonderful. The modern western buildings in Ginza were gorgeous. Even Ueno, Asakusa, and Shiba's parks had a beauty she had not seen in the countryside of Fujisawa-Osaka.

But Akane did not react to all the novelty around her. Appearing like a wall of ice.

Even when Hanabi asked what she thought about the play.  
Even when she praised the tea at the teahouse.  
Even when she asked about her colleagues at the factory.

How rude.

It seemed like Hanabi was talking to a mannequin in one of the display windows of Ginza's shops

One time the blackette sat down on an isolated empty seat in the theater on purpose so Akane had to protest there was no room for her to sit next to her.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Akane-chan. I forgot about you!"

Even while trying to maintain her image of a sensitive, innocent girl, Hanabi kept thinking hard.

She had several contingency plans prepared in case she wouldn't succeed in spinning the feelings Akane's guarded blushes and glances when they passed one another back home had betrayed to her into something more potent.

But she had committed to this plan for now because it allowed her most room to maneuver and because it allowed her to put the knowledge she had of Akane's personality from when they were children to good use.

The Acchan of old seemed to have changed, however. Hidden behind a wall of ice the timid but adventurous girl that had always put her faith in Amane refused to come out to play with her.  
No matter what Hanabi tried Akane would remain an ice-cold mannequin. It was frustrating and unsettling.

'What should I do? What should I do? I have to do something.'

Hanabi was agitated but kept her appearance and manners natural. She remembered that time she had kissed Akane on the cheek in the painter's shop.  
She had been more forward than usual, pulling Akane along like of old, pushing her into the chair and holding her tight. But she got a big reward.

There had been a crack in the wall of ice.

To Hanabi's delight, the cold and proud Amaterasu Gozen had blushed like any ordinary embarrassed 22-year-old girl. It made her wonder.

* * *

A day at the end of February. They had brought another visit to the Kabuki-za after posing for their painting.

Akane had seemed bored, so Hanabi had taken her along to a tea house in the hopes of drawing her out by talking about the play.  
On their way to the tea house, people would pass them by and look at Akane, admiring her beauty.

Some men brushed up against the flaxen-haired girl on purpose, ostentatiously begging her pardon.

'Hey! You thuggish guy! Are you sure you want to try and touch this girl's behind?  
I know for a fact that she hates you pretentious fops.  
Do you know this girl is a trained killer, who can take your life away in the blink of an eye?  
Run away now, because I don't know how much longer I can keep her from castrating you!' Hanabi amusedly imagined calling out to one of them.

Afterward, they went to the Ryounkaku.

Hanabi had wanted to visit since she got to Tokyo. But she had waited purposely so she could go with Akane if her plan worked.

There was an exhibition in one of the rooms organized by the company who owned the building. A kind of beauty contest between a plethora of girls who all had their pictures taken and displayed there.

The two young women walked calmly among the other visitors over a shiny buffed floor around the large luxurious room with the pictures of the beautiful geisha's displayed on its oaken wall panels and illuminated by electrical lamps hanging from the ceiling.

Many of the men were staring more at Akane than at the pictures. Hanabi couldn't blame them. She considered Akane far more beautiful than any of the young women in the pictures.

Afterward, they climbed to the top of the tower. The sight from the observation deck of the tower was amazing! Better than the blackette had expected.

Hanabi was really enjoying herself, regardless of her success in seducing her opponent.

Then, while being enchanted by the dazzling view over Tokyo she swore to herself never to forget, Akane surprised her by asking her out of the blue:

"Hey, can I ask you a thing? Why do you associate with these burakumin?"

Hanabi scratched her head. She hadn't expected such a question.  
Of course, she could not tell her the real reason. But this was an opportunity. She had to make the most of it.

"Well, all my life I have been shunted by the people in our town," She spoke frankly.  
"So seeking employment here I felt drawn to people who are similarly treated by society."

About half of this story was true.  
She couldn't say anything about the potential usefulness of her association to people close to the local Yakuza.  
There was always some truth to the lies Hanabi told.

Akane was harsh and cold as usual. But then there was a reaction.

"I won't begrudge you wanting to spend this time like ordinary girls our age. It is enjoyable to live like this."

'What was that? Remorse?'

Hanabi saw something. A crack in the wall of ice Acchan had pulled up around herself.  
She delighted at the blush that accompanied the apologetic, soothing words.

"So you enjoyed yourself?"

No reaction, just like before. Had she been mistaken?  
Hanabi wondered what she should do. She sadly lowered her head.

"I wish I could have picked a play better suited to your taste. I'm really sorry. But I'll do my best next time," She smiled.

There it was again! A sudden dilation of the eyes. A coloring of the cheeks.  
Hanabi took note of every instance she managed to chip away at the wall of ice.

* * *

Each Sunday evening after they spent time together Hanabi reflected on her progress.

She could not write anything down. That would be dangerous. What if Noriko or her parents proved nosy wretches?

Her own parents were probably idly wondering what she was doing in Tokyo, waiting for the day of the ritual of divine selection when she would bring them fortune.  
If matters had been left to them that day would only bring them a dead daughter.

Hanabi smiled to herself as she reflected on what would await her parents and their "Daimyo" after the conclusion of the ritual of divine selection.

* * *

The following Sunday Hanabi cooked brunch for her and Akane as usual. She had clumsily prepared a bento with katsuretsu, using offal her employer regularly granted her from the meat shop instead of cutlets.  
She was not a very good cook.

Hanabi had started the loose custom in order to be economical while trying to please Akane, but now she saw it as one way of establishing more familiarity between them.

"This is very good," Akane complimented.

Hanabi smiled and tried not to giggle. The flaxen-haired girl had always had the palette of a goat.

"Thank you. It is something new I wanted to try."

The tamagoyaki had been half-burned so Hanabi had tried to muffle the taste and look with mustard.

"Do European people really eat such expensive meat for lunch?" Akane had asked her earlier.

It had been hard for the younger girl to contain her laughter at that time.

Then Hanabi noticed the weathered hands of Akane.  
They were wounded from the work in the factory. She took hold of them and against Akane's protests bandaged them.

She sat close to the older girl, enveloped in her fragrance.  
Akane's hands were softer than she had imagined. Her skin was gentle to the touch.

"Thank you," Akane had whispered.

Her voice was soft. Hanabi looked up. Her sharp eye detected another crack in the ice.  
She was happy and showed a shy smile while she reveled in the lack of alertness of her opponent.

'Yes. This is the way forward. to feign weakness. To melt the wall of ice with kindness. To ignore all convention like an idiot and push myself into her heart.'

* * *

Later that day Hanabi arrived at her room.  
She remembered the expression on Akane's face. The defenseless, girlish face of Amaterasu Gozen.

'Absolutely don't let go. Chase this advantage. Pierce and peel off Amaterasu Gozen's wall of ice.  
Free your old friend Acchan who is hiding behind it. Be sure to find her and draw her out.

Don't let go.

It is clear that a slight change in strategy is in order. Only Amane will be able to draw Acchan out.  
Do not be afraid to boldly close the distance between us any longer.

The way ahead is to establish a sense of familiarity. The lion is less likely to eat the goat that shares its bed.  
Dangerous predators have been known to rear infants belonging to a race they would ordinarily consider prey.

If Akane will not show you what is in her heart on her own accord you must jump into her heart yourself.

* * *

The next Sunday Hanabi was relaxing in the communal bath of a local sento.

Earlier that day she had received her copy of Myojo, the literary magazine she had a subscription for.  
It was the communications tool she had agreed upon with her contact from the Kenpeitai.

As so often during the last few years she had written to the magazine in the form of a poem which her contact had decoded so he could read what she was always asking about: Whether they had assembled enough proof to ascertain that every person on the list she had started to send them in her early teens was indeed part of the conspiracy and when they would arrest the conspirators.

She had sent them only a handful of names at first - and that under her father's name so if trouble would come from it, it would fall on him - but she had done her research and made sure they were names that would arouse serious concern without seeming ludicrous.

There were some very high ranking people on the list, however, whose names she had sent later on when the secret police had ascertained that there was truth to her claims and she could drop her guise to them.

There was still one very important name she had made clear to them that she was keeping back to ensure their need for her.  
Her insurance, whom she fondly thought of as Mr. Potato Head.

The answer to the question she had sent - also written as a poem, under the pen name of Tekkan Yosano, the owner of Myojo - was hopeful, hinting that the arrests would soon be carried out.  
However, it didn't seem like they would be coming in time to prevent the ritual of divine selection from taking place.  
So to Hanabi's disappointment, she would have to see her plan through and risk her life in August in order to see her victory become a reality.

That was why she was enjoying the rare treat of having the sento's entire bathing area to herself to its fullest while trying to shake off her chagrin.

She and Akane had agreed to meet in the bathhouse instead of having brunch together and the blackette was looking forward to their day together while soaking in the hot water.

After a few minutes Hanabi unexpectedly saw Noriko enter the bathing room through the sliding door.  
The blonde made a startled expression when she spotted her father's employee in one of the bathtubs.

Hanabi watched the shorter girl wash by the faucets, then rinse her body over the wooden floor.  
Eventually, Noriko slowly walked over with her long blonde hair tied up in a bun.

"Sorry for disturbing, Yasuraoka-san," She bowed. "Are you here with your friend?"

"I'm waiting for her," The blackette smiled. "Akane-chan hasn't arrived yet, so you're not disturbing me."

To Hanabi's surprise, the blonde girl looked nervously towards the sliding door before continuing.

"I... I have been wanting to talk to you about something," Noriko stammered. "Can I join you in the bathtub for a moment?"

"Of course. Please share this pleasure with me." Hanabi nodded to the smaller girl.

"Oh! Did you manage to get Awaya-san to follow you?" She asked with an intrigued look as her friend climbed down into the wooden tub with her.

Noriko had been coming to her often for advice on how to get closer to Mugi Awaya, whom she had fallen in love with. Or rather had become obsessed with.  
He was a university student at Noriko's school who was the son of a couple that owned a western style pharmacy in the neighborhood.

Hanabi had been enjoying herself getting the girl to do all kinds of things in her desperate quest to get the attention of the young man who obviously didn't care for her at all.

"I... I didn't," Noriko muttered with a dejected face. "I dropped my handkerchief in front of him after loudly blowing my nose as you advised and then I ran off, but he never chased me."

"How curious," Hanabi replied, looking ponderously at her interlocutor. "We'll have to think of something else tomorrow evening."

"Oh. Thank you for always helping me trying to win Mugi-san's heart," The little blonde girl nodded enthusiastically while she enveloped the blackette's right hand with both of her own. "You are the best friend I ever had, Hanabi-chan!"

'That is because you are such a deranged little thing that I am the only person you can get to talk to you,' The older girl laughed internally.

"...That's why I can't keep what I came to realize to myself any longer. I want to tell you your secret is safe with me," The petite blonde whispered.

Hanabi's heart skipped a beat, but she managed to keep herself in check.  
What was this?! A veiled threat? What did Noriko know? How did she know?  
Hanabi had to proceed with utmost caution.

'This is exactly the kind of diminutive, deceptively innocent girl writers like Thomas Hardy and Thackeray introduce into their stories in order to make their romantic heroines look like weak victims of their emotions in comparison as they bring them to their ruin,' She thought to herself. 'How unfortunate for Noriko that in spite of my appearance I am neither romantic nor a heroine.'

"Secret?" Hanabi frowned with a lopsided smile.

"Yes... Princess," Noriko breathed in a hushed, strained voice before she bowed her head under water.

Hanabi stared at her friend. She was convinced like never before that this girl was a natural idiot.

"I'm sorry for bringing this up so suddenly. I have always wondered how a girl with your wisdom and beauty would come to work in our meat shop," Noriko whispered.

Hanabi had to repress her laughter at being called a beauty. Though she realized she was attractive enough to charm Akane.

"It was your knowledge of western culture that made me realize the truth: you are a Princess seeking refuge in our country from the revolutionary powers in your home country."

"Shhh!" Hanabi shushed excitedly. "You must never talk to me in public about this again. I am in hiding in Japan in order to organize a contra-revolution so my family can relieve our beloved people from the villains that led them astray. But you must keep this knowledge a secret even to your own parents. My life depends on it."

"I am aware of this, Yasuraoka-sama. I will take this secret with me to the grave. I swear to you," Noriko emphatically whispered.

"Thank you," Hanabi grabbed both of the blonde's hands in hers, coming close to tears. "I knew I would find friends in this beautiful country.  
I knew I would find a very special friend in you, Noriko-san. Please... Such a dear friend must call me by my first name."

"No... No... I can't," The other girl fiercely shook her head, sending water droplets flying into Hanabi's face. "Your station. It wouldn't be right."

"I must insist. Besides, you know, I am your employee. We must keep up appearances for my safety," Hanabi gave the blonde a serious, penetrating look.

"Oh!" Noriko exclaimed in horror. "That's true. I apologize for my carelessness, Hanabi-san," She bowed her head under water again.

"I am so happy we became such close friends!" Hanabi exclaimed.

"Oh! Me too," The smaller girl smiled gratefully. "I will leave you now, Hanabi-sam... san. I apologize for bothering you."

"Don't worry about it, Noriko-chan. I am grateful for your discretion," Hanabi smiled magnanimously as her friend climbed out of the bathtub and left a little while later.

Ten minutes later, to Hanabi's repressed chagrin, a very late Akane finally arrived. She felt like a Shar Pei by the time they left the sento. But at least she had gotten a good laugh.

* * *

One Sunday afternoon when it was almost time for Hanabi to go downstairs to share her dinner with the family of her employer Akane had asked to stay a little longer.

"How do you use mesmerism on yourself?" She had asked.

"Why?" Hanabi showed her a fake confused look. She had been waiting for this question.

"Is it difficult?"

"It takes some learning. And some skill. But it is not very difficult," The blackette quietly answered.

"Is it more effective than a massage?"

"I find it to be."

"Teach me."

Hanabi tried. But Akane was too nervous and she wasn't attuned to the magnetic fluid.  
For the first time in her life, the perfect Amaterasu Gozen failed at something. It was a rare thing to see, but Hanabi saw it.

"Obviously you have to practice regularly," She comforted. "But when you've mastered it the effects of mesmerism on a person are unparalleled. Let me show you."

The blackette came closer to Akane who was lying down on the floor.  
Hanabi could tell Akane was nervous, but she acted fast so as to deny the older girl time to protest and moved her hands slowly over Akane's body.

Akane's cheeks turned red. She clearly showed Hanabi the unprotected, exposed face of an ordinary girl in love.  
Body temperature, sweaty palms, increased breathing.

'What does she imagine I am going to do?' Hanabi laughed internally.

"I would like to try some techniques I learned from an aunt who used to work as a masseuse in a hot spot, "She joked with a completely innocent expression.

"Ah, no!" Akane nervously replied. "That is not necessary.  
Ow! It feels like electricity."

"That is the effect of magnetism. It will dissipate."

Skilfully Hanabi moved her hands all over Akane's body without touching.  
She sensed the spots where the magnetic energy was blocked and gently stroked with the palm of her hand to free it.  
To her surprise, she found the flow of Akane's magnetic fluid was being hindered by a series of long-established irregularities she could not immediately get rid of. But she did manage to improve things somewhat for the time being.

When she had finished Akane slowly stood up and bowed, thanking her with a new smile. The flaxen-haired young woman looked refreshed, relieved.

Hanabi couldn't help staring at her for a few seconds. She felt this unguarded, happy Akane looked much more beautiful than the cold Amaterasu Gozen.

* * *

After dinner, Hanabi came back to her room and sat down at her high table to reflect on the events of the day.

That embarrassed expression of Amaterasu Gozen. That nervous twitching of her body.  
Hanabi had noticed a similar reaction when she had hugged Akane at the hot spot.  
It was a violent reaction from Akane that had turned Hanabi more cautious and made her decide not to be so free with her adversary anymore.

But it seems she had drawn the wrong conclusion back then.

Hanabi had already decided in the interim that to be forward with Akane yielded the best results, but now it seemed the flaxen-haired girl's attraction to Uzume Gozen was already far more developed than Hanabi had dared to hope.

Hanabi had often noticed Akane eyeing her with curiosity when they passed one another in Fujisawa-Osaka.  
She had on rare occasions "accidentally" bumped into her rival so she could observe her flushed reaction from up close.  
There had been an unnatural fascination there that had nothing to do with the fascination a warrior feels for an opponent.

Hanabi had quickly deduced that this fascination was akin to the fascination a man feels for an attractive woman.  
Or the fascination Akane Minagawa so expertly engendered in the men of Fujisawa town.

A trap had been born in Hanabi at that time.

She had for a long time entertained the idea of luring Akane to a place where they did not know anyone, Tokyo preferably.  
Once from under the scrutiny of the arbitrator and their family, Hanabi could attempt a number of ways to weaken her opponent.

One way had been to find a young man that could seduce the carnivorous flower of Fujisawa-Osaka herself and then break her heart.  
Such a thing would severely cripple Amaterasu Gozen, who was extremely sensitive to emotional bonds.

But once she had realized what fascination she held for Akane Hanabi felt it advantageous to alter that plan.  
She would be the one to seduce the cold Amaterasu Gozen and break her heart.

The plan had nothing but benefits:  
It would enable her to exploit the intimate knowledge of Akane's personality Hanabi possessed from when they had played together as children.  
It would be hard for Akane to kill a person she loved.  
And her being the one to pierce Akane's heart instead of a boy would enable Hanabi to observe the results of the endeavor first hand.

Now the blackette had undeniable proof that her strategy was working.

'I remember reading once that effort is always rewarded in every endeavor but one: love,' Hanabi reflected while sitting at her table with her hands folded under her chin and staring at the Kanuki Akane had bought her.

'I don't think the person who wrote that was very knowledgeable about love,' The young woman chuckled to herself.  
'Because love is like a game of chess: If you are skilled, put in the effort, and study your opponent carefully you are guaranteed to catch their Queen and checkmate them.

I can see the path to winning.  
I will show you more. I will tell you more.  
I will seem vulnerable, I will seem melancholy, I will seem sad.  
I will smile uncertainly, I will speak of my troubles, let you comfort me, speak softly.  
I will give you as much as you want.  
Just to get you to love me more.

Let's be close to each other. Let's be intimate.'

Hanabi pondered the way to proceed a little longer.

Then she remembered the unguarded expression of desire and embarrassment showed her by the flower of Fujisawa-Osaka turned into a butterfly helpless to the lures of the Nephentes Yasuraoka.

"I caught you, Akane-chan!"

A smile like a sickle appeared around her lips.

* * *

The next day Hanabi was working the counter in the meat shop, standing behind the wooden cases, filled with ice, containing cutlets, chicken breasts, steaks, and sausages.

Both the meat shop and the nabe restaurant it was attached to were owned and ran by Noriko's father, but Hanabi was the only one who worked in the shop.  
In the evenings she would serve in the restaurant together with Noriko and her parents.

Hanabi enjoyed being part of a team. She enjoyed the contact with the customers she served.

It used to fascinate her as a child that everyone ignored her, but when she went to a restaurant or tea house with her parents the people working there were forced to acknowledge her at least.  
Now She was on the other side of the employee-customer relationship and she enjoyed herself in that place.

But the work in the meat shop had its own rewards.

Even though she had to wake up early in order to take in the deliveries from the slaughterhouse she enjoyed talking with the jovial burakumin, several of whom she knew to be yakuza members. She made sure to cultivate their friendship.  
Manning the counter in the day meant she could learn lots of things about the people living in the neighborhood.

Hanabi was reflecting on how much she actually enjoyed the work when a familiar person walked into the shop.  
Narumi Kanai, the arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection approached and greeted her.

"Good morning, Yasuraoko-san," He smiled. A superficially good-natured, bright smile. But Hanabi could see through his carefree expression. She saw frustration.

"Good morning, Okyaku-sama," Hanabi bowed. "Please let me be of service to you. I am certain our products will please you greatly."

"Thank you, Yasuraoko-san. But I did not come here to taste the product of your degeneration," The arbitrator smiled.  
"Are you enjoying yourself here? I have noticed you girls have been spending lots of time together. I have enjoyed watching you play your games on my part."

"Games? I don't know what you are talking about, okyaku-sama. Minagawa-san and I have been enjoying ourselves here in Tokyo. That is all."

"Haha, I see you want to try my patience. It doesn't matter. You girls are free to employ whatever tactics you employ to win. Are you ready for the ritual?"

"Yes," Hanabi nodded with a grave look.

"Your parents have high ambitions. You should not disappoint them," Narumi warned as he observed the meat displayed before him.

"No. They have taken good care of me," Hanabi agreed in mock obedience.

Narumi smiled again. A cruel smile. Like a bird of prey. She could only imagine what he would like to do to her.  
She knew he had always despised her and the feeling was more than mutual.

"Well. we all do what we can for those who are important to us. But since everything is alright with you I will leave you alone. I am pleased to see you have found an occupation that suits you in this city," He attempted to insult her.

Hanabi knew he had been watching them. Narumi Kanai was not to be underestimated.  
She had to be careful. She had to be prepared for anything from him. He would certainly try to poison Akane's mind against her.  
But he would be surprised how hard he would have to work to accomplish something like that.

Hanabi had made much progress in melting the wall of ice.  
At first, she could only think of Akane as Amaterasu Gozen. A beautiful warrior that wanted to take her life.  
That is how she regarded Akane at first, but that had been a mistake.  
Akane was still the cautious but curious girl she had been as a child deep down.

As of old, Hanabi had to push her before she gratefully took in all the experiences the younger women offered her.  
All those experiences were poured into the wall of ice.

Then, eventually, Akane began to act more freely in imitation of the pleasure Hanabi seemed to find in her company.  
It was another crack. It was a secret joy for Hanabi.

But after a while, Akane started to act more like an older sister to Hanabi.  
She started to act protectively towards the blackette. When Hanabi would pretend to cry or be depressed Akane would try to comfort her.  
It was all progress in the way Akane's feelings for Hanabi were developing.  
Sometimes Hanabi could even see a naughty side to Akane.

But apart from the progress she had made, this was all so much fun!

Hanabi had told the arbitrator the truth. Akane and her were really enjoying themselves in Tokyo.  
To meet and walk. Drink and eat. Make a joke and laugh.  
It seemed natural to others just to spend time with a friend. It was a garden of Eden Hanabi would have liked to stay in forever.

But in the end, it was all just an act in a play that would end with murder.  
A play written by the Kirishima family, directed by Narumi Kanai.

'I am an actress. I play a tragic romantic heroine.  
Akane plays the beautiful worldly socialite who is my rival, and who is supposed to bring me to my doom.

But it's okay because I am only acting out a part.  
In reality, I am the one who is writing and directing this play. And I will give it a conclusion hitherto unheard of in theater.'

Hanabi grinned as she saw the arbitrator for the ritual of divine selection disappear trough the crowd in the street.

'You may try to interfere with my plans for Akane-chan, but you would do better to worry about your own fate, Narumi Kanai.'

* * *

End credits: Nobu Koda : Violin Sonata No.2 d-minor

watch?v=K6hBx-Ue6eg


	6. Chapter 6

Spring had arrived. The flower-gazing season had begun. Next Sunday the sakura trees in Tokyo would be in full bloom.

Hanabi and Akane were planning on having a flower-gazing party together. They had gone to a tea house for brunch before taking a walk through Ueno park and closed the day in Hanabi's room.  
The blackette had made tea in the kitchen downstairs and poured the fragrant brew from one of the blue-and-white restaurant sets.

As usual, Akane had reservations about the idea of a hanami, but after some discussion, Hanabi had convinced her it would be fun.

"Don't worry Akane-chan," She had said. "I know a park where nobody will disturb us."

Akane looked pleased.

It was fun for Hanabi to have Akane trust her completely again. Just like when they were children.

"Atchou."

Hanabi sneezed, rather loud and indecent when she was about to drink from her teacup.  
She was somewhat embarrassed, but Akane looked concerned. She leaned over the high table and touched her cheek.  
It felt hot where Akane had touched her.

"Are you sick? The older girl gently asked.

"No." Hanabi smiled innocently.

This was good. An opening was found. Hanabi would find a way, any way to exploit it.

"I just stayed up too late. It is still a little cold out. It is nothing," She played the situation down, trying to elicit more of a response from the flaxen-haired girl.

"You have to take care of your health," Akane warned with crimson cheeks and smiled awkwardly.

'Pursue this!'

"My constitution is not very strong. Unlike Amaterasu Gozen. You are so strong Akane-chan, and yet you look so graceful at the same time."

The flaxen-haired young woman blushed again and averted her eyes.

"Thank you. But you move very gracefully too, Hanabi-san. And you have very pale skin."

Hanabi felt a strange glow spread through her body as she observed her prey and heard her clumsy compliment.

* * *

That evening, after Akane had left and she had dined with Noriko and her parents, Hanabi danced through her room with joy.

'Such progress!' She thought to herself. 'Such a confession! It was as close to a confession of love as I can expect from her.

Akane is very intensely conscious of my presence. There is no substitute for monitoring and observing the prey first hand.  
I am so glad I choose to pursue this plan. I've got to explore her downfall through love even more boldly.'

Hanabi carefully touched her cheek with her fingertip. Akane' s touch had felt soft and gentle.  
One little sneeze and yet such abundance of treasure had come from it.

'I wouldn't mind getting a cold after what a sneeze brought me! She might insist on nursing me!'

Hanabi felt giddy. She supposed it was from turning around so much right after dinner.

"I'm looking forward to next Sunday, Akane-chan," She smiled.

* * *

Tokyo had come into the cherry blossom frontline. Everyone in the city was out and about, it was a wild and cheerful merry-making.

The blue sky. The luscious green. There were countless cherry blossoms dancing around both of the participants in the ritual of divine selection as they found their way through the foliage of Fukagawa park.

At last, they sat down under the three cherry trees that were hidden among the other trees in the quiet park.  
Akane's hand reached for Hanabi's shoulder and plucked away a stray cherry blossom as the younger woman unpacked their bento.  
For a moment Hanabi couldn't turn her eyes away from the gentle expression on the face of the flaxen-haired girl.

"Are you having fun, Akane-chan?" She finally asked.

'That's it,' Hanabi thought to herself. 'I have made myself look cute. Akane is enjoying herself. I have caught her like a butterfly in my pitcher.'

The blackette had made a bunch of western-style "sandwiches" and other things for their private flower-gazing party.  
Some of the meat she had used for the sandwiches was half-spoiled, but Akane would never notice even if the meat was rotten.  
Hanabi took care to keep the sandwiches with the good meat for herself.

"Hmmm. These" sandwiches" really are delicious," Akane complimented. "There's a peculiar taste to them that goes well with the sake."

"I made sure to make them to your liking," Hanabi smiled cheerfully, feeling happy because of the compliment.

It was fun to have this private romantic moment together. The food wasn't too bad in the end and the sake did taste good.  
A little too good.

To her embarrassment, Hanabi ended up drinking a little too much.  
In an attempt to sober herself up she tried to focus her vision on the birds in the trees around them. There where buntings and sparrows...

Akane was confiding in her about her work in the factory.

Really, compared to the first days what a difference she had wrought in Akane! The flaxen-haired girl was so free and warm with her now, talking about anything that came up in her mind.

Akane was really kind to the people around her. She really cared about those less fortunate. Like a knight...

Hanabi hid her face in her hands. A Japanese Robin had just pooped on Akane's shoulder without her noticing.

Such bad luck.

Just when the older girl was telling such a sad story.  
Just when Hanabi was slightly drunk and had a hard time mastering her emotions.

The blackette pretended to weep in order to hide her giggles.

"Poor thing! In trying to relieve herself she merely became a burden to others," She whined.

'Don't make such jokes. You can't allow Akane-chan to notice you are having so much fun.  
Innocent, emotional girls do not laugh when people are telling sad tales about suicide and maltreatment!'

Then Akane suddenly pulled Hanabi closer. It was enough to almost sober the younger girl up.  
Hanabi didn't mind this closeness. This warmth.  
She closed her eyes and allowed Akane this little sly trick, quietly resting her head on the shoulder of the taller young woman.

'How naughty to take advantage of the fact that I am tipsy to steal a hug,' Hanabi thought with amusement.

* * *

'Hooray. Hooray!'

Hanabi was singing joyfully in her room after Akane had brought her home.

This was a great victory. Everything was proceeding according to her plan.  
No. She was doing better than that. Akane was completely smitten with her. Those awkward eyes! Those blushing cheeks!

'I have to think about what I should wear next. Maybe I should buy something new.'

Hanabi was enjoying herself. She was thinking of how she could further ensnare the older girl. What situations might make Akane lose her heart and, if Hanabi's suspicions concerning her strange behavior of late were correct, her sanity to the blackette?

"Everything is going great!"Hanabi said a little too loud. She held her hand before her lips and chuckled.

'Calm down,' She told herself. 'Because you are too excited, you are glowing all over.

Is it because I enjoy the hunt? Because I am winning? Or is it because I am still drunk?  
Anyway, I should calm down.

Akane-chan is completely at my mercy it seems.'

The idea sent a shiver trough Hanabi' s heart. She remembered Akane's almost inaudible, angry muttering as she held the younger girl to her bosom in the park. As if she was arguing with herself. The memory made her shiver again.  
She really must still be drunk.

'Your work is not over yet. The road ahead is still long and victory is not yet assured. You have no way of knowing what the arbitrator might try. And if Akane really is being struck by madness she might become unpredictable.  
You have to stay sober at all times.'

Hanabi lay down on the floor and employed her mesmerism techniques. In a few moments she felt calm again. Employing the magnetic energy of the palm of her hand

A reliable buddy.

A powerful Tessen.

The best secret weapon.

However, for the first time in her life, Hanabi was beginning to feel a chilling horror of her own secret weapon.  
Slowly but surely she was realizing that the art she was using to ensnare Akane was a double-edged sword.

* * *

A few weeks later Hanabi had the pleasure of seeing Akane laugh out loud for the first time when they saw another play at the Kabuki-za.

Earlier, to her shock, the flaxen-haired girl had almost gotten up to confront a couple that was gossiping about Hanabi had she not stopped her. It made the blackette feel happy that Akane would do such a thing for her.  
But it troubled her to feel that way.

Later at the tea house, sitting on the straw matting and eating sweet daifuku with their tea, she reflected on how the author had incorporated so much of Cervantes's Don Quixote into the story.

Even if the play was written as an inspirational patriotic epic it was amusing that the comedy of the source's dialogue was unintentionally recognizable in the story.

"You remind me of the hero of the story," Hanabi giggled.

'Don Akane,' Hanabi thought to her own amusement. 'Ready to defend the honor of any maiden... And Hanabi Panza, her loyal squire.'

Then Akane blushed and Hanabi's sudden thumping heartbeat told her what she had been suspecting for a while.

* * *

That evening in her room Hanabi was restlessly reflecting on what she had discovered.

'This can't be. I cannot be falling in love with Akane! The plan was to get Akane to fall in love with me, so I could break her heart and cripple her for the ritual of divine selection.  
Love is supposed to keep her from killing me so I can end her life instead. If I am falling in love with her I will be similarly afflicted!  
How do I prevent this?"

She held her head in her hands and glared in frustration at the little tanuki statue Akane had bought for her a while back.

At that moment Noriko announced herself.

Hanabi gladly welcomed the diversion since she wasn't able to find an answer at the moment and opened the door to the blonde who at her invitation sat next to her at the table in her self-designed pink yukata and white obi.

"Your plan worked, Hanabi-sama!" The girl exclaimed excitedly. "I did exactly as you said..."

"You made sure to casually twirl your hair into his face after bumping into him in sight of his parents?" Hanabi eagerly pursued with hidden amusement.

"Yes. And he reacted exactly as you said he would, pretending to be offended in order to hide his growing affection from his parents."

"I had a hunch he would," The blackette couldn't resist a giggle.

"Then his parents invited me in and we started to talk about the restaurant and their business and Awaya-san's studies.  
They were very nice and eventually they suggested for Awaya-san to invite me to the Tanabata festival."

The mention of the festival that would have all of Tokyo gather in the streets in two weeks time gave Hanabi an idea.

She had never been to a festival herself except with her parents when she was young.  
She liked the idea of going to the Tanabata festival in a group.  
She might find a solution to her current predicament once they were there.  
Mugi Awaya was sure to flirt with Akane.

Hanabi was loath to find herself becoming jealous, but if she did she might use that anger in order to nip her feelings for Akane in the bud.

"Noriko-chan! Would you mind if Akane-chan and I joined you?" She enthusiastically asked, her hand grasping the younger girl's wrist.

"Oh, thank you! It would be wonderful if you could join us! To tell you the truth I have been so nervous about being alone with him for the first time," Noriko said while she enveloped Hanabi's other hand with hers and looked at her with pleading eyes.

'I don't think it will be his intention to be alone with you,' Hanabi chuckled internally. 'But that problem will solve itself.'

"Don't worry," She said. "I will be by your side to advise you the entire time. We will all surely enjoy ourselves together. And I can give you some very useful advice right now," Hanabi said, trying hard to hide her glee as Noriko leaned closer with enraptured attention.

"Here is what you must do..."

* * *

A few weeks later Hanabi casually walked hand in hand with Akane, carrying the cute red umbrella she had just bought, towards the place Noriko had discovered Mugi Awaya was supposed to meet up with his friends.

As she had expected, when they arrived there at the time she had agreed upon with Noriko, Mugi's friends had mercilessly abandoned him to the idiot who was always pursuing him and would surely spoil their chances to meet with girls who were right in their head.

What she hadn't expected was to see Mugi and Noriko hand in hand.  
The sight bothered her and she let go of Akane's hand without warning.

Mugi was wearing a simple dark-grey yukata with a light-grey obi. He acted very cold and full of himself, exactly as Hanabi had expected. She didn't understand what Noriko saw in him.

Her employer's daughter wasn't wearing the indecent looking dress she had shown Hanabi in January after all, instead, she had donned a pretty light-blue yukata with a butterfly pattern she had created earlier.

The blackette had successfully persuaded her to wear something more conventional to her first date with Mugi.  
She didn't mind if Noriko made herself the laughing stock of the neighborhood, but she preferred if the blonde didn't do it in the company of her and Akane.

When the dancers came near and the float was carried along afterward Noriko left Mugi's side for a moment to talk about what to do next.

"You were absolutely right, Hanabi-san!" She exclaimed. "As soon as I approached Awaya-san and greeted him his friends tactfully left us alone together. You are so wise!"

"The way you described them I had a feeling they would be so kind as to leave their friend alone with the girl who wants to make him happy," Hanabi smiled.

She stared at Akane. The flaxen-haired young woman was standing a few meters apart from the other three.  
Hanabi thought Akane looked somewhat lonely. She felt strangely compelled to go by her side.

'No!' She grimaced. 'I can't allow this to go on for much longer. This plan is failing. I need to think of something else to cripple her before I lose the taste for doing so.'

After the float passed them by she purposely walked behind Akane and Mugi and talked in hushed tones with a nervous Noriko.

"Just try to enjoy yourself, Noriko-chan. You have him on a date with you. Try to relax and enjoy yourself and he will enjoy your company."

It might have been the first well-meant piece of advice she had ever given the girl, but Hanabi was not in the mood to play tricks on her.

"You think so, Hanabi-san?"

Hanabi watched Mugi talk to Akane in her gorgeous red dress and her beautiful braided hair in front of them.

"You are wasting your time together by talking to me. Go to him and I will help you where I can," She continued.

Noriko reminded them all to tie their wishes around one of the overhanging bamboo-branches, but Mugi escaped her and bought some yakisoba at a food cart.

Hanabi had pondered long over what she would wish for. At last, she had written down the two kanji for compassion.  
If there was more compassion in the world her fate and Akane's fate and the fates of lonely Noriko and the girls in the factory Akane worked in and the burakumin who turned to crime would all be different.

She was displeased when she noticed Akane had read her wish.  
She didn't want her opponent to think she would wish for compassion for her own sake in her presence.

Once they continued their walk through the busy streets Noriko came to pester her again, so she sent the girl to Mugi who was feeding Akane noodles from his bamboo plate.

It got on Hanabi's nerves that Mugi's attention towards Akane was indeed making her jealous, even though she was the one who had chosen to walk behind them. Even though Akane obviously hated him.

Love was ridiculous. She hated it.

"So... How is your plan fairing?" A voice full of poison inquired to her left.

The blackette turned her head and saw the arbitrator to the ritual of divine selection had stealthily approached her in a plain dark-green yukata.  
Hanabi was annoyed as it was, but if Narumi Kanai wanted to sour her mood further, he would be treated to the same pleasure.

"What plan are you insinuating, arbitrator? We are only enjoying the festival with some friends. It is so nice to spend time with people who acknowledge our existence."

Narumi laughed.

He laughed like a villain in a play, Hanabi observed.

"I doubt much good will come of your plan if you underestimate me like that, Yasuraoka-san. I assure you that I have observed both of you scrupulously. I am well aware of your goal and of how little you are succeeding," The young man grinned viciously.

"If I am not succeeding in this goal that only exists in your mind I suspect you have very little reason to be bothering Akane and me," Hanabi giggled. "But I am sure you have been observing Akane-chan close enough to know the color of her undergarments."

Suddenly Narumi gripped her wrist hard. Hanabi turned on him in a fury, instinct and frustration prompting her to defend herself, but she was able to control herself enough to keep calm.

Narumi's face came close to hers. The look in his bespectacled eyes was full of intense hatred. Cold, violent hatred.

"Take care that you do not underestimate me too much, arrogant girl. Because I will make sure your hopes will crumble in front of you. You are not half as clever as you think you are. I will deface you, Yasuraoka-san. I will deface you and Minagawa-san will end your miserable life in the theater. "

She had always known he was mad, but the way he was behaving now was making her afraid of him for the first time in her life.  
"I want to deface you." No man in his right mind would ever even think such a thing.

Like a ghost, the arbitrator let go of her and disappeared in the crowd.

Hanabi quickly recovered and when she saw Akane search for her she was able to greet her with a winning smile.  
She quickly ran up to her when a sudden exclamation from Noriko turned their attention to an amezaiku artist's yatai.

The four of them came closer to the wooden cart and watched the man use a pair of tweezers to nimbly shape a blob of millet jelly into the shape of a magnolia.

Hanabi saw how entranced Noriko was by the creations of the fellow artist and she found herself sharing her admiration for the beautiful sculptures of edible art.

After the man added the magnolia to the kingfisher, butterfly, and red robin that were already displayed - impaled on a wooden stick - on the edge of the cart he went on to fashion another blob into a goldfish to the admiring gazes of his many spectators.  
When he was finished Akane unexpectedly asked to buy the little candy sculpture.

To Hanabi's frustration, elation, and embarrassment the flaxen-haired young woman proceeded to offer the amezaiku to her and she accepted with a deep bow and a blush.

Then, to everyone's surprise - not least his own - Mugi asked the performer for a flower he could offer his date.  
Hanabi suspected he wanted to look good in front of the numerous other girls that had gathered around the yatai, but she was happy Noriko finally got her romantic moment with the boy she loved.

The blackette watched with a big smile how the little blonde was so overjoyed when Mugi offered her the precious pink sakura the artist had fashioned she couldn't keep from jumping into his arms to the great embarrassment of the handsome young man.

So gentle, so sincere, and so adoring did Noriko look the moment the boy she loved so much gave her that gorgeous amezaiku Hanabi thought she rivaled Akane in beauty.

They both ended up buying a beautiful amezaiku in return for the other two.  
Hanabi had put Noriko up to it because she wanted to deprive Akane's loving act of the emotional load it had burdened her with.

While they continued their walk, talking about Mugi's career and Noriko's studies Hanabi noticed that they were being followed by an unsavory bunch of young men.  
Several of them made faces and gestures at her that made their intentions quite clear. What angered her most, however, was how they were leering at Akane.

She decided to ignore them, but a desperate and cruel plan began to hatch inside of her after she tripped Noriko to help the pig-tailed blonde get into a romantic situation with Mugi and get him away from Akane.

* * *

After that, they went to the park together where the shrine had organized a performance of the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi in the open air.  
It was a very emotional performance and everyone was having a good time sitting in the grass. With the paper lanterns illuminating the large wooden stage

But Hanabi had less romantic things on her mind.

On their way here she had taken Akane's hand in hers again. She had inclined herself towards her companion as close as she casually could and had employed every tactic to taunt the youths that were stalking them.

Now she was watching the play with Akane - the young men sitting at some distance from them - but instead of listening, she was thinking of ways to get her and Akane alone with those boys.  
She pictured Akane being raped by them and felt her heart sting.

Suddenly she realized Akane had asked her a question. 'What was it? Do I have someone I like?'

She looked at her rival but couldn't return her honest gaze.

'This is the way forward. Now more than ever.' She couldn't allow these feelings to grow any stronger.

What she was planning would harm them both. They would carry the experience with them for the rest of their lives.  
But even if she wasn't already to all appearances growing mad, Hanabi knew Akane well enough to know that being put through what those thugs no doubt had in mind for them would absolutely devastate the flaxen-haired young woman.

What's more, Akane wouldn't just be horribly traumatized, she would blame herself for not being able to protect Hanabi.  
The outcome of the ritual of divine selection would be decided at once.

While trying to find a way to isolate themselves with the boys Hanabi hugged Akane and brought her face close to hers, for the purpose of taunting their would-be rapists as much as possible so they wouldn't lose interest.

Then Akane pushed her and ran off...

Hanabi was taken by surprise, but quickly got up and ran after the older girl for various reasons.  
Annoyed and relieved for losing this chance, she quickly tried to think of a reason as to why the flaxen-haired girl had run off like that.

Finally, she saw Akane stop in her tracks and was able to catch up with her in the middle of a shady, abandoned street.

But then, while she confronted the taller girl, her heart was shocked by fear and exultation when she heard a cruel voice behind her and realized the boys she thought they had left behind had surrounded them.

Hanabi saw them surprise Akane and bring her down by numbers while they pushed her down and a fat one got on top of her. She wept as pathetically as she could for Akane while she tried to stay calm and tried to rationalize what was about to happen to them.

'It'll only hurt if you struggle,' She told herself. 'It's only sex. Just imagine it's Akane making love to you. This will be worth it in the end. It will be over soon enough if you lie down and let them do exactly what they want.'

Akane's stifled screams cut through her heart. She felt the first guy's stinking breath on her and imagined it was Akane's morning breath.

But for some reason, some God had decided to take mercy on her unworthy, evil soul and saved them both.

"Geez... Don't you think you guys are in the wrong part of town?"

It was Shingo! Hanabi could jump for joy.  
She quickly freed herself and was fiercely embraced by a weeping Akane.  
The blackette felt truly miserable being cared for so much by the girl she had wanted to put through this horrible traumatizing violation.

More than anything it was the realization that unburdened by the image others projected onto her she was capable of the lowest, most despicable things that made Hanabi shake all over.  
She wanted to crawl into Akane's embrace and never show her face to the older girl or the rest of the world again.

* * *

Akane was still shaking by the time they and their escort arrived at the meat shop and left their clogs at the genkan and went inside.

Hanabi couldn't stomach letting the older girl spend the night alone after what she had gone through. She couldn't imagine taking her to the Kamomebata's nagashi-somen party would do anything but aggravate the memory of what had happened.

She tricked Akane into spending the night with her, doing her best to get her to talk about her pain and relax her as much as possible.  
And then, lying next to Akane underneath soft green blankets, after the older girl had wept long and pitiably in her arms, she passed a horrible night, waking and sleeping.

In the middle of the night, Akane had a terrible nightmare, crying out about demons and Amane.  
Hanabi took up the role she had played with such pleasure as a little girl and tried to soothe the traumatized young woman she was falling in love with to the best of her ability.

At the end of that horrible night, she woke up with her arms around the taller girl, hugging her tenderly.

* * *

Noriko had come home in the company of two of the burakumin who had gone out looking for her about an hour after Akane and Hanabi had. She had gone straight to bed, claiming to be very tired.

Hanabi didn't see her in the restaurant when she was working with her mother and father there in the evening after the festival and when she saw Noriko at breakfast or lunch the girl was quiet and pale. After eating her food without tasting the little blonde told her parents she was feeling ill and went straight to her room.

Hanabi suspected she had confessed to Mugi and had been rejected.  
Feeling she should play the part of the older sister and help the girl get over her ill-judged obsession eventually the blackette looked Noriko up in her room after work Tuesday evening.

Noriko's room was very prettily decorated with all of the beautiful dresses she had made for herself. Some of them looked a little ridiculous, but they were all pretty and colorful.

Hanabi saw, among others, a white kimono with purple flowers and a beige western-style dress with a lark nestled amidst reeds.  
It was the dress Noriko was most proud of and justly so, Hanabi felt.

The girl was listlessly but gently fondling a doll in her hands with a downcast face as Hanabi came in.

"Good evening, Noriko-chan," She said gently and bowed. "I'm sorry for disturbing."

"Good evening, Hanabi-sama," The pig-tailed girl muttered.

She was sitting on her futon with an indigo cover bearing pine tree, bamboo, and plum tree embroidery.  
Hanabi carefully came and sat next to her.

"Are you feeling any better?" She asked.

Noriko shook her head sadly but didn't respond.

"I take it you didn't have a good time with Awaya-san after he carried you off," Hanabi continued.

She was sitting close to her friend, but the younger girl still wouldn't look at her.

"Listen, Noriko-chan... You have a real talent. I think maybe you should ask your parents to help you find work with a tailor. You are great in the restaurant too, but I know designing dresses is what you really love."

The blackette listened for an answer but got no response. She carefully got a little closer.

"Did you tell Awaya-san that you are in love with him?" She quietly asked.

Still no reaction, but Hanabi thought she saw the younger girl tense up.

"If he doesn't love you back you will get over him in time. I know..." Hanabi reflected on her own experience with being in love and gritted her teeth.  
"Sometimes being in love is like a curse, Noriko-chan. It hurts, right? You should concentrate on what makes you happy. You should put your energy in the future you can give yourself..."

"He took me to a house..."

Noriko's voice was ever so small, Hanabi could barely make out the words. What she could understand made her shiver.

"Wh... What?"

Noriko was silent.

"What house?"

The blackette heard a forced sob. Then in a strained voice: "I don't know. It was a while walking from the park..."

It couldn't have been in the neighborhood. The local Yakuza would have recognized Noriko. They would have known better than allow a boy to take her into a room alone.

"He said we would talk without a crowd around us..."

"Noriko-chan..."

Hanabi felt a tear trace down her cheek.

"I... I didn't... He pushed me down and told me to be quiet..."

Noriko sobbed and gasped, hugging the doll to her chest.

"It hurt... But it's what I..."

Hanabi touched the girl's delicate shoulder.

"He's not going to marry me, is he...?" The poor girl whimpered.

Hanabi pulled her closer and let her sob in her arms until she fell asleep from exhaustion while she did her best to stifle her own tears, blaming herself for what had happened to the younger girl while she was plotting to put Akane through a similar experience.

* * *

Noriko's state didn't improve during the rest of the week. Hanabi bought her magazines and beautiful cloth to cheer her up and tried to get her to open up more about what had happened, but Noriko didn't want to talk anymore.

The girl asked Hanabi about her country, so the older girl made up a bunch of fairy-tale stories about her life as the crown princess of the Princedom of Dalmatia.

Friday evening after Hanabi came back from fetching her and Akane's finished portrait from the painter Noriko's mother told her that her daughter had gone out for a walk. Hanabi was glad to hear it.

When she got to her room she carefully unpacked the painting and placed it on top of her wooden tansu so as to appreciate it from a distance.

Akane looked very beautiful.  
The painter had captured her proud, gracious beauty well.

She was sitting on a bench in the park wearing a glorious bright red kimono.  
The older girl looked so radiant. Her long flaxen hair, her blue eyes, her white porcelain skin... Truly Amaterasu Gozen in her natural splendor.

Behind her, a girl with a gentle unassuming beauty encircled her shoulders. Hanabi couldn't find fault with the way the painter had portrayed her.  
She looked like a cute little sister wearing a green and yellow kimono with a flower pattern.

But her smile...

The girl in the painting was grinning at Hanabi as if they shared a secret only they knew about.  
The girl's smile angered Hanabi.

It was as if her likeness was mocking her.  
As if she was cruelly ridiculing Hanabi's self-proclaimed victimhood.  
As if she was merrily making fun off all the justifications the blackette had made up for her merciless plotting.

And now, the girl in the painting and the girl in the room were both perfectly aware of that secret the rest of the world was still ignorant off.  
They both knew that Uzume Gozen was a cruel, vicious demon who did not deserve love nor compassion.

* * *

By Saturday evening Hanabi couldn't stand having the painting in the same room with her anymore.  
She leisurely walked up to Akane's lodgings, resolved to see her plans through and reminding herself that if she wouldn't be ruthless with her enemies they would be ruthless with her.

When the shoji was opened to her Akane stupidly presented her with an origami lily she had folded, causing the blackette to pause for a second.  
Hanabi quickly recovered and pushed the painting in Akane's hands.

Seeing the older girl full of praise for the painter's creation Hanabi took the opportunity to "trick" her into a picnic the next day.  
The blackette took her along to Sumida park through the approaching darkness.

When they found the place the painter had used as inspiration for their portrait Akane's eyes grew wide.

"That's amazing, Hana-chan!"

Akane really believed she could just recognize a particular part of the park from looking at the painting.

'She is always so impressionable,' Hanabi observed with a warm heart.

The painter had told her he had used the park for inspiration and whereabouts she could find the tree he had painted behind them.  
Hanabi had gone there beforehand to see if she could locate the spot.  
But Akane genuinely believed the younger girl could locate the exact spot from seeing it in the painting.

Then she proceeded to increase the pressure on Amaterasu Gozen's heart, acting as innocently coquette as she could.

"I really like coming here with you, Akane-chan. I love you."

'I will continue to deceive her,' Hanabi ordered herself sternly. 'The love I feel for her doesn't have to change that. If anything my feelings for her will make the affection I used to faint seem more genuine.

I will play the naive, kind, gentle, straightforward, sad girl. And when the day of the ritual of divine selection comes I will kill Akane and gain my freedom!'

She hugged the older girl like a serpent. Then she shivered, not knowing whether it was from the unusually cold summer air or in horror of herself.

* * *

Before going to sleep Hanabi visited Noriko in her room. The girl was sitting on the floor with her cloth and materials all around her. She had been working on her latest dress all day.

"What do you think, Hanabi-sama?" She asked, holding it up for her to admire.

Hanabi liked that Noriko seemed to be doing better and took an interest in her favorite occupation again.

Mugi would never be punished for raping her.  
As doting as Noriko's parents were the truth was they wouldn't react any differently from most parents.  
They would give their daughter a hug and try to comfort her, and they would tell her to forget about what had happened to her.  
Hanabi herself had not felt able to do more.

And that would only happen if Noriko could get over the shame of having been used so unfeelingly by Mugi while she had fantasized so much about him making passionate love to her.

The pig-tailed girl might have been obtuse, but she was well aware that Mugi had been lusting after Akane and that he had only used her to work out his sexual frustration.  
All of that pain came on top of the traumatizing experience of helplessly having her body violently abused.  
Like a limp doll, victim to whatever rough handling her owner desired to put her through.

Noriko wouldn't have complained to anyone but Hanabi.  
And she had only done so because she was convinced the older girl was a foreigner and a Princess.  
In spite of her sincere friendship, Hanabi was an outsider to Noriko. She would never have told her what had happened otherwise.

The dress was beautiful.

It was a rich, long white yukata decorated with red cranes. It exceeded the beauty even of her western-style dress with the lark.

"It looks finished," Hanabi said, gazing on the beautiful dress.

"It almost is," Noriko said, holding the dress up and looking thoughtful.

"Are you feeling any better," The blackette asked softly.

Noriko looked up timidly. "Yes," She muttered.

"I... I'm sorry I made Mugi carry you off, Noriko. I'm sorry for what happened to you," Hanabi bowed deeply. "But nothing I say can..."

To her surprise, the blonde girl came closer and hugged her.

"Thank you for caring for me, Hanabi-sama," She said in an affectionate voice. "Please don't worry anymore.

I think I wanted too much. Awaya-san gave me as much love as he is able to feel for me. I can never get married to the boy I love. Don't be unhappy with my fate for my sake. I have been blessed with your friendship."

Hanabi gently caressed the smaller girl's back and shoulders. She wished her goodnight, looking at her sweet, pale face and her shy smile.

Tomorrow she would go on a picnic with Akane and further cultivate the older girl's feelings for her while stifling her own love. Only a few weeks separated them from the day of the ritual of divine selection.

* * *

It was raining terribly on Sunday morning. So much for the picnic.

But Hanabi had to meet Akane in the park.  
She could go to meet her at home, but then Akane might have already left for the park in case she had gone there.  
Both of them would have to go to the Sumida river in the pouring rain because they couldn't risk the other one might.

Hanabi laughed aloud at the miserable ridiculousness of love as she got her umbrella and left the house.

'There was no reason for the sadness I have felt these last days, I'm winning after all. I know everything about Akane now. It's becoming so easy.'

She had not seen Noriko at breakfast, but that was nothing unusual lately.  
Hanabi hoped the younger girl would be able to continue her life soon, she didn't know how long her parents would be so lenient.

By the time she arrived at the background of the painting by the river the rain was letting up and not seeing Akane around she decided to wait for her, walking around in the drizzle.

Nobody was around in this weather.

Looking up at the grey, cloudy sky and around at the soaked trees and grass Sumida river and its surroundings had an otherworldly appearance.

Hanabi looked down at the wide, fast-streaming river separating her from the luxurious villas on the other side.  
Branches and leaves were being pulled along in the tempestuous water.

As she followed the stream Hanabi's eyes fell on a strange dirty red and white shape clumped together with mud and branches at the edge of the water about two meters to her right.

A cold fright shook her heart as she knew rather than realized what the shape was.  
Hanabi carefully climbed down the steep sloping riverbank in the drizzling rain, almost falling in the river several times.  
After a full three minutes, she finally was able to reach a position on the edge of the amassment of debris.

The right side of Noriko's face was visible lifted slightly up and away from Hanabi's position.  
With tears streaming down her face the blackette carefully lifted the younger girl's face up and started to work her loose from the branch that might have saved her life.

'She was saying goodbye last night. She had planned to get married in this dress but she finished it as her funeral dress!'

These were the thoughts that went through Hanabi's mind as she struggled desperately to get Noriko released from the debris that had caught her while trying to lift her out of the water.

At last, she found the branch that the beautiful yukata was wrapped around and with a strength born of near hysteria she managed to break it and hugged Noriko to her by now soaking wet body as she was catapulted back against the riverbank.

The thick, soaked fabric of the girl's dress clung to her cold body, but Hanabi could feel tremulous movement, indicating that she was still breathing.  
Taking this as encouragement and willing herself to calm down she strained her muscles to lift them both up against the steep wall of mud separating them from safety.  
Praying without faith before she braced herself and pulled on an unearthed piece of tree root while hugging Noriko close with her right arm.  
Dragging them up half a meter before slipping in the mud underneath her left foot she pushed their bodies against the wall of the slope and breathed deeply before continuing her climb.  
Her face and hair were sullied with mud and grass and leaves, but that didn't matter, she had to save Noriko!

It took all that she had to finally pull both of them over the top edge of the slope.

Then... Noriko slipped down over the wet grass.

Hanabi gasped in disbelief and narrowly grabbed hold of the girl by her right hand which she pushed underneath her own left shoulder as she braced it against the edge of the slope.  
Hugging Noriko's head against her right cheek and desperately hanging onto her waist with her right arm was all she could do to keep the girl from falling down.

They were trapped.

Hanabi had been exhausted by the climb. She had no strength left to pull her friend up again.  
But she would not let go of Noriko, who had suffered so much and whom she had ridiculed so mercilessly.  
'It would only be just if I slipped and we drowned together,' The blackette reflected as she wheezed and moaned, hunched over the slope.

Then she heard the soft squishy noise of footsteps behind her.

But something told her she wouldn't be saved.

The person approaching paused behind her.

Hanabi heard the distinct sound of a blade being unsheathed and at once the excited breathing and the inarticulate excited whispers of the person behind her made her realize who that person must be.

The person emitted a forced sob and came closer.

Hanabi remembered Narumi Kanai's threat and realized that behind her was a predator, maddened by a gnawing wound, crouching before the attack.

This might be a just punishment for what she had been doing to both Akane and Noriko.  
It might be fair if they had been the only three people in the world.  
But she would not let Noriko's parents lose their daughter like this and she would not lose to Narumi Kanai like this.

With her last strength, she heaved and pulled Noriko up as high as she could, sobbing her name and depending on the love Akane felt for her and the last refuge of pity for her fellow beings the girl who had been ruthlessly shunted and despised all of her life still harbored inside.

Even if she was so enraged that she wanted to murder Hanabi this instant the blackette knew Akane would not be able to disregard another person's well-being.

Then, her energy spent, she felt the weight of Noriko's body about to drag her down.

A strong arm pulled on Noriko's right arm and Hanabi gazed in relief at Akane's unguarded, flustered face as their joined forced dragged the younger girl to safety at last.

Once they had succeeded in rescuing Noriko, Hanabi lifted her unconscious friend onto Akane's back.  
She tried to feel for the dagger as she did and her suspicions were confirmed when she found it hidden underneath the older girl's kimono.

After an arduous journey, they arrived at the meat shop.  
Hanabi was glad to be able to assure Noriko's parents that their daughter was still alive when they brought her to them.

She and Akane did all they could to help out the parents in their distress.  
But when the physician came and she took Akane to a local sento to wash, Hanabi wrecked her brain to figure out how the arbitrator had been able to poison the flaxen-haired girl's mind against her.  
It would have been something that would hit the older girl like dynamite to suddenly turn her deeply smitten heart into wanting to murder the one she loved.

Did he tell her she was in love with another?  
Did he tell her Hanabi had been deceiving her all this time?  
Had he threatened to tell their parents and the others back home about her love for Hanabi?

These were the things Hanabi pondered as she sat in the hot water of a large wooden bathtub and a picture of Fujisan behind her.

Akane wouldn't have cared much if he couldn't back his stories up.  
The only way he could back any of those stories up was with proof from Hanabi.  
The only proof he could provide of her that Hanabi could think of was written proof.

Akane had never seen Hanabi's writing except for that one time at the festival, but she had written to the arbitrator to confirm Akane's letter that she had found residence in Tokyo and he had seen her writing before.  
He might have forged her handwriting for the purpose of putting any horrible things into Akane's mind.

Hanabi had gotten permission to be in charge of the meat shop while Noriko's parents nursed their daughter so that the family could keep at least part of their income.  
When she took Akane with her to take stock of what had to be ordered from the slaughterhouse she took the opportunity to at least plant doubt in the older girl's mind as to the veracity of whatever Narumi had told her.

Since the arbitrator might have forged her handwriting she attempted to write down what had to be ordered in as different a style from her usual as she could, drawing the lines of the kanji extra bold.

Akane seemed to be alright now, watching the traffic go by through the latticed shop front. To all appearances what had driven her to approach Hanabi with a bared dagger at the very least didn't carry the same urgency anymore.  
Or perhaps she found she could not follow through with her murderous intent in any case.

Hanabi looked the older girl in the eyes as she asked her to go home.  
There was no murderous intent there.

She could only see concern and love for her in those eyes… Love which she didn't deserve.

When, in the morning, Hanabi told the burakumin who delivered the order what had happened they called her a heroine and were deeply saddened.  
Noriko did not really have friends her own age but she was truly loved by her father's friends and associates.

They helped Hanabi out all they could in running the meat shop, but really she was able to manage alright.

The physician came to visit on Monday evening and Hanabi heard that the younger girl might indeed be infected with cholera. It seemed Noriko had drunk a great amount when she went to Sumida river. Several bottles of plum wine and sake were found missing from the restaurant and the physician said she had smelled alcohol on the girl's breath. Hanabi begged her to keep these things to herself.

Noriko had been in and out of consciousness and had been able to talk with her parents. Begging and receiving their forgiveness for her foolish behavior. Hearing their loving, soothing words and their encouragements to rest and get well.  
She had suffered from terrible vomiting fits and diarrhea almost as soon as she woke up.  
From what the parents had said it seemed, however, that Noriko's state was improving. The physician didn't think a hospital admission would be necessary, saying the patient was stronger than she looked.

Hanabi worked full of hope all through the next day, serving her customers with a dutiful smile.

That evening she heard screaming and wailing as she took her dinner alone in her room after work.

The blackette hurried to Noriko's room where the girl's body was being hugged on her futon by her bereaved parents and stood silently in the door opening, watching them lament the loss of their much-beloved child.  
She had not been able to save the life of the girl who had looked up to her as to a Princess and considered her who had mocked her and tricked her a friend.

Hanabi went to bed without tears.  
She fell asleep remembering what a beautiful, innocent, devoted, talented and sincere girl had been her friend, feeling empty inside.

All through the wake, she was by her employers' side at their request, as if she was part of the family. She presented a large envelope of money to them from her personal fund.

Noriko's body was laid out in a cypress wood coffin in her room.

The dress she had worn that fateful day, the most beautiful she had ever created, had been washed and put on her body.

Family, associates, and some customers came and dined and drank and talked with Noriko, her parents, and Hanabi as they celebrated the little blonde's life.

Hanabi and Noriko's mother took turns wearing her beautiful dresses to show everyone how talented she was.

Several of the burakumin and their wives wept during the gathering, expressing their love for the Kamomebata's sweet, loving, talented child and Hanabi was hugged by Noriko's father and thanked for bringing his daughter home.

And the next day, a Judas to the end, Hanabi walked demurely in the procession like a dutiful daughter, chanting the sutra's at the burial in front of a portrait of Noriko and saying kind words to the widow of a yakuza who had been particularly fond of the girl.

* * *

On Saturday, when it was all over, Hanabi sat in a daze on the floor in her room, staring at her tokonoma.

Why had this been Noriko's fate?  
Why had she died so young?  
Would she have lived if Hanabi hadn't come into her life?  
Should Hanabi have known something to say that would have made the girl feel better about what had happened to her?

She looked at the doll in her hands. The doll Noriko had treated so kindly.

Noriko's mother had said that during one of her bouts of consciousness, Noriko had asked to give it to Hanabi in case she died and asked to tell the blackette to remember her friend in future struggles.

Hanabi remembered how her only friend had told her once that the doll she was holding was one of the first things she had ever made.  
A finely detailed cloth doll of twenty-centimeter length with two blonde pig-tails and a peach-colored kimono.

Hanabi hugged the doll gently while she wept, wishing she had been able to pursue her struggle without hurting the people who love her.

* * *

End credits: Sakura, Sakura

watch?v=rYX_uy-INYA


	7. Chapter 7

On Sunday Akane came over.  
Akane rarely came to see Hanabi at home, but she would have heard of the funeral and no doubt was worried.

The older girl sat down in front of the tokonoma next to the blackette, who experienced the closeness as a bother at first but was ultimately thankful for Akane's concerned looks and anxious pleas not to burden herself too much.

"I'm alright," The younger woman smiled quietly, taking a sip from her tea. "I'm sad that Noriko died, but I've been busy, so I haven't had much time to let it get me down."

Akane was kind. She was still a jittery, curious girl underneath all of her training, but she had also become much more outward going since Hanabi started to seduce her.  
She was a friend at least. A friend who cared deeply about Hanabi. Who loved her deeply.

When at last she started to talk about what had happened to Noriko the words glided from Hanabi's mouth as if they had a life of their own, but she knew she had to say them, even though she couldn't say all if she wanted to protect her plan.

Hanabi wanted very ardently to let Akane know that she had failed the only other friend she had ever had.

"It's my fault Noriko died, Akane-chan. I pushed her into Mugi's arms..."

The blackette was conscious of the other girl's body growing tense. She gradually, fearfully, but conscientiously looked Akane in the eyes.  
It was as if she was begging the older girl to recognize the kind of person she truly was, to look beyond her act.

"I was the one who spurred her on to doggedly pursue Awaya-san while not caring about what might happen to her. Therefore her death is partly my fault," She continued while noting the flaxen-haired girl's pale face and her glazed over stare.

Akane loved her. Akane was a person who cared about others. She was kind and warm and gentle like a knight from Arthurian legend. Maybe they could...

"Akane-chan..."

"You are not weeping," Akane interrupted her with a queer smile.

Hanabi paused and reflected.  
Akane actually looked happy that she was not weeping.

Instead of looking at her with a face that betrayed an anxious desire for her to show weakness so she could treat her like a doll to be handled according to her wishes Akane actually seemed happy that Hanabi was showing her the strength she usually hid under her sad girl act.

Hanabi saw an Akane who wanted her to be an equal instead of a teary-eyed girl who needed to rely on her.  
An Akane who looked more beautiful in her orange yukata than she had ever looked to Hanabi.

As she sat smiling at the flaxen-haired girl in adoration, Akane's face came closer and closer until their lips touched.  
Hanabi felt Akane kiss her tenderly. Full of sincere, heartfelt love, and unable to restrain herself any longer Hanabi eagerly kissed back. Passionately expressing her desire, her love, her remorse.

Then, to her shock, the flaxen-haired young woman backed off with a frightened look in her eyes and, awkwardly apologizing, hurriedly left in spite of Hanabi calling out to her.

Hanabi felt she should run after her friend. She wanted to tell her that her feelings were mutual.  
Still... She didn't move from the spot where she was sitting.

Her eyes moodily wandered around the room, over the Tanuki Akane had bought her, over the books she had read Akane, over the origami she had folded with Akane.

'This is a game,' She reflected. "It is a play I am writing and directing. Because I have always had to fend for myself, and I can do a lot of things.

But it is not like everything always came to me by magic. As if I did not study on my own to acquire my knowledge. As if I did not spy on Akane's training so I could mimic it in training myself to the best of my ability. As if I did not harden my heart and steel my nerves in order to carry out my plan. As if I had ever had any kind of help for any of it!

I have endured and planned and worked hard all of my life in order to overcome my fate. And I have felt pride in the fact that I was winning.  
Those who are responsible for my fate will be punished.

But I have forgotten one thing... I wasn't the only one whom they wronged.

"You are the only other person who can understand!" That is what I said... But it's me who never understood until now.'

The moody look in Hanabi's eyes changed into one of determination.

'Someone once said that love is like a game of chess,' She smiled to herself. 'I don't think that person was very good at chess... or love.

It is easy to seduce someone when you know how. It is easy to make a certain type of person think that they need you. It is easy to make them think that you want to be with them more than anything.  
It is easy to make someone feel dependent on you and make them feel like their entire world revolves around you.

None of those things are love.

Love is when you look into each other's eyes and you can see into the soul of the person you love.  
Love is when that person is looking at you and you realize you have never seen another person's look happier.  
Because you are not weeping.'

Hanabi got up and approached the tokonoma, plucking the doll Noriko had left her up and gently stroked its hair.

'Let's change the ending to the play, Noriko-chan. For Akane... and for you. I won't let Mugi Awaya go unpunished. And I won't take Akane's life to save my own.'

* * *

A few days went by. Hanabi thought about Akane. She tried to imagine how she must be feeling. She tried to imagine what Akane would want.

Akane is a warrior. She would want to fight. So she reflected as she sat at her table with "Noriko-chan" on her lap.  
Several books on mesmerism lay open in front of her.

'Akane Minagawa is Amaterasu Gozen. She is a warrior. Hanabi Yasuraoka is Uzume Gozen. I am a deceiver. A trickster.  
In order to win, we will both of us have to do what we are not used to.  
She will have to let others fight for her and I will have to tell the truth.

This is the plan to make things right.

From now on, I cannot go back. The basic plan hasn't changed, I am still fighting alone, against my family, against my Daimyo. Against everything I have ever known.  
Everything is as usual. Exactly as planned. Except for one thing:  
I will risk everything for Akane.

If this fails I will have no friend in the whole world who will save me. But it is worth it to save the person who loves me.

I will kill Akane to save her. Because I cannot trust her to stick to a plan in her current state if I were to tell her the truth.  
But in killing her I will restore her to a healthier state. I have read up on the appropriate techniques. What I plan to do has never been attempted, but the theory is sound. I am sure I can do it! I will give Akane a deceitful death, thereby cleaning up my first deceit with a second.

And this way, I will rescue her from the fate of the ritual of divine selection. I will save both of us. Smoothly and promptly.  
Then I tell her everything and let Akane choose what my fate will be.

I have to risk everything while continuing to pretend as before. But I have to rely on others for part of my plan. I will have to trust in others for the first time in my life.'

Hanabi trembled just from thinking about giving up control, but even while feeling crushed by anxiety and fear she had decided.

'I have to do it. Because only one person in the world, only I can fight for Akane.'

* * *

Having come to her decision Hanabi carried out the plan she had come up with to save Akane.  
She did a very difficult thing because she had to hurt Noriko's parents again who had been so kind to her. But she wanted them to know the truth and then decide what they would do with that knowledge.

She first approached the father alone, wanting to spare the mother the pain.

On Hanabi's request, Noriko's father agreed to sit down on the green tatami with her at one of the tables in the restaurant once business had been dealt with.

It was the habit of the Kamomebata's to have dinner together once the last of the customers had left and entrance to the restaurant was closed up.  
After dinner, Noriko's father would check the earnings of the day.

Hanabi nervously made tea in the restaurant's blue-and-white earthware as he was employed with that task. After he finished he came to her, wearing a dignified dark blue kimono and sat down.

He curiously regarded his young employee in her light-blue kimono, pouring tea for him with such a serious air and wondered what she wanted to talk to him about.

Then, with all propriety due to the gravity of her revelation, Hanabi recounted everything she knew of the last days of his daughter's, life.

The man let Hanabi finish her story without interruption as she unfolded to him all that Noriko had suffered.  
Then he wiped his tears and told her that he had suspected something like what she just told him after the state Noriko had been found in and how listless she had been afterward.

He asked Hanabi some questions and told her of the intimate and emotional conversation he and his wife had shared with their daughter on her deathbed.

Hanabi herself shared some tears with her employer, taking the time to bear her heart about how she will miss Noriko and how much his daughter had come to mean to her.

In the end, the man sincerely thanked her for risking his wrath in telling him what had befallen his darling Noriko and told her that he was happy to learn his daughter had touched the heart of such a capable and well-behaved girl so deeply.

But then, Hanabi told him there was more.  
She told him that she had a confession to make and that if he allowed that confession she would be placing her life in his hands.

Being an important yakuza member Noriko's father didn't take such statements lightly.  
As far as he knew Hanabi Yasuraoka he was under the impression that she wouldn't either.  
So what she would be discussing with him next, if he allowed her to speak freely, was sure to be a grave matter and might inconvenience him greatly.

Noriko's father looked the only true friend his daughter had ever had in the eyes and aware that the girl in front of him was not exaggerating the gravity of her request he brought his cup of tea to his mustachioed lips and emptied it.

"You have been a dependable employee and a truly great friend to my daughter," He said and paused.

Hanabi made sure her face betrayed only anxiousness.

"Thank you for your praise, Kamomebata-san, "She bowed.

"It appears to me..." The tall man continued. "That what you are about to tell me will be something more than a simple confession of facts?"

"What I beg you to allow me to share if you so see fit, will contain a proposal, Kamomebata-san," Hanabi humbly declared.

The blackette noticed movement from the corner of her eye and glanced aside to notice Noriko's mother had come to check up on them from the kitchen, where she had been cleaning up.

The truth was that even before Noriko died her parents had made an emotional attachment to Hanabi.  
Her secrecy about her background had made them curious, but among their acquaintance, people who didn't want to talk about their past were rarely bothered.  
They knew Hanabi must have family somewhere and they suspected that Akane was actually her older sister. Nevertheless, they grew to assume that role for her.

Hanabi was very much aware that she would be causing them additional pain on top of the loss of their daughter by leaving them if not forever at least for a long time.

"Are you aware of the kind of man I am outside of my family life, Yasuraoka-san?"

"Yes. I am, Kamomebata-san. My proposal is of that nature that only a man like you might help me. That is why I humbly sit before you," Hanabi bowed again.

"You understand that if I hear you out it would not be as the father of your friend, nor even as your employer, but as a businessman who will not provide a service without a return?"

"I do."

Noriko's father shortly regarded the determined expression in the eyes of the girl sitting in front of him. He reflected on the fact that there were still women who would sit before a man like him in the way Hanabi was doing.

'Of course, Noriko couldn't have made a friend out of any other kind of girl,' The Yakuza grinned.

"What would be the summary of your proposal and what would you be able to offer me in exchange for my service?" He asked.

"My aim is to extract a living woman from a burial casket at a Buddhist temple before cremation, Kamomebata-san. What I can offer is the tenfold of this."

Hanabi revealed a package from her kimono and held it up in both hands while she bowed to the man who held the power to enable her to save Akane's life.

"In case you would allow me to beg your help I would humbly offer this as a pre-payment for what I would impose on you, Kamomebata-san."

Noriko's father took the package from Hanabi and found a large number of banknotes contained inside of it.  
After carefully examining them he closed the package and placed it neatly on the table in between them.

"You have access to such funds?" He asked the blackette with a penetrating look.

"I do. Via a trustworthy contact, I can free funds from shares in several successful businesses. I can offer you tenfold or more, according to your need," Hanabi honestly stated.

Noriko's father observed the girl in front of him again.  
Clearly, there were many things he did not know about Yasuraoka Hanabi, but what he had learned made him curious to know more.

"Very well, Yasuraoka-san," He said as he smoothed out a crease in his kimono. "You have my permission to state your proposal."

Hanabi quietly watched him for a few seconds and exhaled.

To her right, she could see Noriko's mother was still watching them.

Outside, a stormy August wind was howling.

What she was about to do came harder to her than she had expected.

From the moment she had discovered the list that had changed her life by sneaking into her "Daimyo's" house during the family's vacation in Okinawa she had managed to retain her destiny in a firm chokehold.  
She had allowed some calculated variables in her plan but during all of the last ten years, she had always, always been in control.

For Akane, to save her life, to make up for her lies and manipulation, Hanabi was going to make herself vulnerable to a man who had no need for her.  
She was going to lay her life and destiny as well as that of Akane in the hands of the father of the girl whose death was partly her fault.

But this was only right after all.

Because since she came here to this shop that sought help nobody wanted to provide since it was a business associated with burakumin, and was welcomed by an endearing, unhinged girl with long blonde pigtails and trusted by two kind outcasts connected to Tokyo's underworld...

Since she had been attacked in the late evening by a girl whose heart she had broken before but who trusted her to show her all the exiting and poetic sights and attractions of modern Tokyo and enjoy them with her...

Since the time when she had entered the hearts of these people, they had also entered her heart.

So for Akane and Noriko... For the girl whose life she could still save and the girl she hadn't been able to save, Hanabi opened her mouth and trusted Noriko's father with her past, her struggle, and her future.

Kamomebata-san listened with intrigue and wonder. He had no idea Hanabi and Akane were in such peril.  
He was amazed at the desperate plot and machinations of the Kirishima's and their vassals.

When he heard it he knew the plan that Hanabi proposed was a dangerous one, but her money and the suggestion she made on Noriko's behalf brought more courage to him than any drink.

Besides, he was all too eager to help someone humiliate a bunch of samurai contra-revolutionaries.

When Hanabi finished talking, Kamomebata-san took the packet of banknotes from the table and told her they had become business partners.

* * *

The next days were spent making the arrangements to accommodate the plan.

Hanabi heard Akane had become involved in a strike at the factory she worked at but she could not be nervous about that.  
The world was against her it seemed. But that suited her.

The conflict could not last longer than the date appointed for the ritual of divine selection and even if Akane got hurt or arrested it would not be an insurmountable obstacle to her plan.

At last, when she received the latest publication of Myojo and found the message she had hoped to see for so long in the literary magazine she had a subscription for, she knew the time had come to act.

Shortly afterward, the strike at the bamboo basket factory Akane worked at ended and Hanabi was curious to learn what had happened.

* * *

The next Sunday Hanabi was walking through the crowded streets filled with rickshaws, pedestrians, and horse-drawn carriages toward the inn where Akane lodged for what might be their last meeting in Tokyo.

She knew it was going to be painful.  
She wanted for both of them to enjoy their last day before the ritual together, but in the end, she had to hurt Akane according to the plan.

Soon they might be together forever.  
Maybe not. Maybe Akane would not be able to forgive her. It was a gamble in any case.

Hanabi made sure to look at the colorful shops and bustling crowd of the capital to lift her spirits, but that didn't really work.  
She was going to miss Tokyo.

When she arrived at the beautiful inn with the karahafu gabled entrance Hanabi paused to remember the first time she came here.

She had ventured into this building then with the feeling that she was going to have to trick and deceive the girl she had once hidden in a tree with back in Fujisawa-Osaka to throw plums at passersby in order to save her own life.

She had been nervous but determined back then.

Her feelings and strategy had not changed much from that time, but her purpose had. She would absolutely do anything she had to in order to save Akane!

When Akane opened the shoji for her Hanabi felt she had never seen the older girl look more beautiful.  
Her long flaxen hair, her bright hazel eyes. The flaxen-haired girl was dressed in a beautiful dark yellow kimono decorated with blue cranes.

Akane's cheeks were bright red.

Hanabi's heart was pounding.

When Akane embraced her the blackette closed her eyes in embarrassment and joy.  
Hanabi had come back to the only person in the world who truly loved her.

They sat at Akane's chabudai and drank tea from a brown lacquered pot. It was awkward at first.  
Hanabi felt sad. She could not tell Akane anything. And she wanted to tell her so much.

She dearly wanted to tell her how much she loved her, how sorry she was, how much she misses Noriko, how happy she had been doing things together both in the past months and when they were children. But there was every chance that Akane would reject her, hate her even.  
And she couldn't risk that. Not until they were both safe.

Gradually they fell into their established pattern and started to talk more freely.

Hanabi enjoyed their last day together. They had so much fun. She enjoyed seeing Akane smile and laugh.  
She did not play melancholy this day. She did not weep. She did not look sad. This day was special. It was a gift for Akane. Today she got to see the real Hanabi.

But eventually it got late and Hanabi knew she couldn't keep pushing back the inevitable. The time to play for all or nothing had arrived.  
She willed herself to stay calm. As much as her heart hurt. As much as she wanted to cry.

Akane looked nervous.

"It really is a beautiful painting, isn't it?" Hanabi asked in order to divert the taller girl's attention.

She didn't want to watch Akane's face when she told her those poisonous words. But she had to say them anyway.

"I was so nervous about my plan to neutralize the physical advantage you have over me back when I proposed that painting to you, but seducing you quickly proved to be child's play."

Akane turned around slowly and it took tremendous strength for Hanabi just to not allow her face to fall. It took all the willpower she had to keep smiling.

'Oh. Akane-chan. You are so beautiful, even with that shocked expression.

She seems to be weeping. I did not want to see such a face. I wanted her to be only laughing today. At least, today.

My heart is torn to shreds and bleeds from every wound How nice it would be to fall down and die in her arms while begging for forgiveness. But... I have to say it.'

Resolved to see her plan through Hanabi opened her lips.

"The time for games is over now," The blackette continued while she held out a sheathed dagger to Akane whose lip was trembling.

"Let's start the ritual for Divine selection," Hanabi smiled. She flashed an ice-cold smile at the person she loved more than herself. "You can kill me whenever you want, Akane-chan. At least... If you still have a taste for it"

* * *

In a room in an ordinary rowhouse in the ever-expanding Fujisawa-Osaka, Hanabi sat quietly at the old dark oaken chabudai that had served her so well in shaping her plans at. She slid her light-blue kimono open at the left shoulder and traced the last of her wounds. The cut made by Akane's katana was healing well and fast.

'Soon.' She thought. 'Soon Akane-chan. You can decide whether you want to finish what you started. Or forgive me for what I have done.'

She remembered the last day she had seen Akane.

The arm that had once gently embraced her and tried to soothe her fake sorrow then brandished the blade it held in fury. Mercilessly hitting Hanabi, cutting her as much as it could.

Hanabi endured. She just waited patiently for an opportunity.

'It's OK. I want you to hate me more. It's like being gently caressed when compared to what I did to you.

I did so many terrible things. I used you so cruelly.

So it's okay. All of it. The plan will work well if everybody plays their part and knows their lines.'

Hanabi didn't know if she would have been able to stay on her feet if Akane had been fighting her properly. It was a testament to the success of her plan.

Akane lashed out again. Hanabi, barely able to block the attack, received a cut in her shoulder.  
A sharp bolt of lightning crackled through her body.

Akane followed up with a mad but shallow punch from her left hand before the blackette could force her in the defensive with a slow slash at her midriff.

Hanabi tasted blood in her mouth. It was painful. she wanted to collapse. She wanted to rest

No good. Not at all.

She could not fall down yet. Absolutely not. Because it was not over.

So Hanabi endured. Hanabi just stood. She just kept waiting, defending against Akane's furious swipes and dashes while trying to make her own harmless attacks look like desperate strikes to the onlookers.

It wasn't even certain whether she would get the chance she needed.  
But she had too. For her most important person.

For Akane's sake, Hanabi continued to endure unbelievable pain and suffering.

'Endure. Survive,' She reminded herself.

And that moment finally came.

With her next attack, Akane left herself open. Hanabi allowed the loss of her sword.  
Akane was slow to follow through, making it still easier.

The palm of Hanabi's hand went soundlessly towards the spot that blocks a person's magnetic energy.

It is a vital spot in the magnetic field around a body that stops breathing and heart.

It can cause immediate death if stimulated by an experienced mesmerist.

At the same time, stimulating a nearby place only slightly will make the reaction temporary and can have a powerful delayed revitalizing effect that smooths out the entire magnetic fluid.

'Pierce it! Pierce the magnetic fluid and save Akane!'

As soon as Hanabi recovered from her lunge and Akane's Katana fell in the sand she saw in the eyes of the older girl what had stopped her from following through with her last attack.

Those beautiful eyes that had lost their light. They hurt Hanabi deeper than any blade.

'You did not hate me, did you?' The blackette miserably thought as she walked toward her exulting parents with a fake smile on her face.

Akane, whom she had betrayed twice now still couldn't hate her.

Hanabi in the present shook her head and broke free from the miserable memory.  
She looked at the square wooden clock shaped like a haiden and decorated with bamboo culms at its sides in her tokonoma.

In a quarter of an hour, she would sneak out of her parent's house for the very last time and meet Akane for the very first time in all honesty.

Hanabi remembered another time, many years ago, when she met her most important person for the first time and told her very first lie to Akane.

It was around spring. She had been running for her life through the high grass towards Fujisawa town, careful that nobody could follow her.  
Hanabi had never felt so excited in her short life.

Then all of a sudden she heard someone sobbing and stopped in her tracks.

A beautiful delicately built girl was weeping against the stem of a tree. She had long flaxen hair, hazel eyes and wore a white kimono.  
She had wounds all over her body.

Hanabi's heart might have been racing from excitement in the knowledge that the list she had copied after sneaking into the Daimyo's house and was pressing to her chest might be the key to her victory over her fate, but right now in the radiance of such beauty, she grew very still.

She recognized the girl.  
She had often spied on Amaterasu Gozen. She had often seen her fight and tried to copy her. But she had never seen her from so close.

Suddenly the girl wiped her tears and turned around. She looked straight at Hanabi.  
Hanabi tensed up.

"What are you doing here?" The girl asked in a dignified clear voice.

Hanabi desperately sought for a lie to tell her.

"What is your name?"

"A... Ham... Amane!" The blackette desperately concocted on the spot.

"Do not tell anyone you saw this."

"Absolutely not!" The blackette promised.

The girls hesitatingly stared into each other's eyes for a few more minutes. Hanabi was just about to ask Akane her own name. But then Amaterasu Gozen ran off into the forest like a deer.

Hanabi stood there for a long time afterward. That beautiful voice kept ringing in her ears.

That day she decided she wanted to know her future adversary better, so a week later she introduced herself again after stalking the older girl and got to know the nervous but curious, cute but prideful Akane Minagawa intimately.

She grew to like her, very much. She was aware that Akane liked her very much. But after a few months, she realized she couldn't continue that friendship if she wanted to be cold enough to win.

So she disappeared from Akane's life without ever having revealed the girl her true identity. Without having told her friend why she would not see her anymore.

'It's funny.' Hanabi thought. 'I suppose people would call that a chance encounter.  
Maybe it was a chance given to us by the Gods to save ourselves together. But it seems to me that from the start I was too selfish and untrusting to be anything but a liar.  
And so I spoiled that chance for both of us.

I'm sorry.

I'm really sorry.

But I'm going to make it up to you now Sanae-chan.'

* * *

In Hanabi's silent room at the house owned by the Kamomebata's, where she had gone through so many emotions, Sanae finally finished reading the last of the notes her childhood friend had written for her.

She had cried many tears over the pages she had read. They vividly depicted the true Hanabi whom Sanae had wanted to know.

The reborn young woman sighed and laid the papers in her hands flat on the table.  
Sanae looked around the room at the cabinets full of books and magazines Hanabi had tried as casually as she could to keep her from reading because Sanae might have found the messages from the younger girl's handler in them.

At last the redhead's eyes landed on the cloth doll and the tanuki statue sitting close together in the tokonoma.

Could she still trust Hanabi?

Twice now the girl she had loved so much each time had broken her heart.  
Hanabi had courted her pity. She had pretended to stand before her without guile.  
She had told her she loved her while plotting to take her life. She had planned to have her raped in order to traumatize her.

But after all...

All of these things, all of this plotting had been done by a girl who had felt pushed into a corner by everyone she knew.  
Hanabi had feared Sanae. That is why things like pity or empathy had been a luxury to her.

Nevertheless, she had known those feelings. She had known heartbreak.

Just like Sanae she had shown kindness and care towards her opponent.  
Just like Sanae she had struggled with what she felt she had to do.  
Just like Sanae she had felt guilt and remorse.

Hanabi had been concerned about Sanae's well-being after they had been attacked.  
Hanabi had risked her life to save Noriko and deeply mourned the girl's passing.

And just like Sanae Hanabi had enjoyed their time together.

Even if Sanae never knew the real Hanabi, the real Hanabi knew Sanae and liked her so much she had done a very difficult thing in order to save her.

That's what Sanae knew.

She read the final message Hanabi had left her.

"I hope you will find these pages. I hope you will read them.  
I hope I will be able to come back to you. I hope you will be able to forgive me for what I did to you.  
But for now... Goodbye, my only friend.

I am sorry I was a disappointment. Thank you for loving me. Please don't worry about me. Please be safe.  
I will always love you."

At last Sanae stood up. She folded the papers together and hid them deep inside the sleeve of her kimono.  
She read the hour on the small pyramid-shaped clock in Hanabi's tokonoma.

It was half past four.  
The redhead had been reading and pondering deep into the night.  
It would soon be morning and she didn't feel tired, so thinking she wanted to read something to distract herself she walked toward the bookcase to her right.

And then, as she stood in front of the case and browsed the titles, the door opened and turning her face Sanae looked straight into Hanabi's eyes...

Hanabi's face was even more pale than usual.  
The blackette slowly closed the wooded western door behind her and stood before Sanae, wide-eyed and breathing heavily.

For about a minute neither young woman could speak.

Sanae watched Hanabi's expression become more animated and her cheeks ruddier.  
Then the younger woman kneeled and bowed her head to the ground.

"I humbly apologize for the pain I have caused you. I am deeply remorseful for my dishonorable and cowardly lies. I am so ashamed I cannot face you!"

Sanae saw the girl she loved prostrate herself before her with an agitated heart. But she tried hard to remain composed.

Were they dishonorable lies?  
Deceit was fully permitted between the contenders in the ritual of divine selection. Sanae had always known this.

Then why had she felt hurt?

Was it perhaps because in truth she could never see Hanabi as her adversary?

Whenever she used to bump into Hanabi in town she had been hypnotized by those periwinkle eyes and that humble expression that seemed to carry the promise of an enchanting smile.

It is true that Sanae had never suspected that her childhood friend might have really been Hanabi, but when she now thought of Hanabi's eyes she instantly envisioned Amane's bright smile, entreating to trust her, promising that whatever adventure they embark on together everything will be alright.

Maybe that is what stung the most about Hanabi's betrail.

That instead of them against the world, Hanabi had taken that trust, that promise that they together would always be alright, and used it as a weapon against Sanae.  
What hurt Sanae the most was that Hanabi had seen her as part of the enemy she had sworn to vanquish as a child.

But could she still trust Hanabi?

"I used to think it was my destiny to kill you," Sanae said as she bowed her head, not apologetically but in sadness.  
"I suppose we were both in the wrong for allowing those around us to turn us into enemies. I don't want you to feel guilty, Hanabi. I don't think Noriko would want you to feel guilty either."

Hanabi slowly looked up. She couldn't believe Sanae would be able to forgive her so easily for what she had done.  
The older girl sounded sincere.  
As Hanabi slowly got up Sanae lifted her head and looked her in the eyes.

"I forgive you, Hanabi-chan. We were pitted against one another in a fight for our lives. You were afraid and you used every weapon at your disposal to defeat me. How could I not understand? How could I not sympathize?"

Hanabi saw the sad look in the redhead's eyes.

"Have you found the messages I left you?" She asked. "The origami..."

"I found them. I read them," Sanae answered.

"I really do love you, Sanae-chan," Hanabi declared empathically.

A small smile appeared on Sanae's face.

"I love you too, Hanabi-chan," She blushed. "After all, you are still the same. You have always remained the same. I just never knew..."

Hanabi couldn't restrain herself anymore. She slowly ventured forth.

She could see that Sanae wanted the same as she did. But there was still something that held her back. Something that Sanae couldn't put into words right away. And even with all the happiness she was feeling right now because Sanae was actually granting her forgiveness, was actually still able to love her, True to her character, Hanabi couldn't allow this restraint to their future together.

She came closer and, as she took in how majestic Sanae looked in her white kimono, their fondled one another. Their fingers intertwined.  
They gazed into each other's eyes and blushed, feeling an irresistible force move their expressions into smiles.

Then Hanabi enveloped the redhead in her embrace, leaning her head on her shoulder, and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Sanae-chan... I know how unfair this is of me. I am so happy that you can find it in your heart to forgive me... To love me. But I have the feeling that there is something you are not telling me. I know there is something inside of you that is causing you pain.  
If you still feel any anger or resentment towards me that is only natural. I want you to tell me how you truly feel, Sanae-chan."

Sanae stood stiff in Hanabi's arm. Struggling with a grimace on her downcast face.

"Please, Sanae-chan. Don't spare me anything. When it comes to the pain you feel I don't deserve to be spared the truth. If you are angry with me I don't deserve you to spare me."

Sanae's trembling lips finally stopped struggling and holding Hanabi in her arms she started to wail uncontrollably.

"I was so lonely...! I was lonely... I was all alone...! You left me all alone...! Hiiiii...!" Hanabi clenched her teeth as her heart smote her for how she had abandoned her first and now sole friend while Sanae wept like a child in her embrace.

"I had nobody else...! You made me so happy and then you left me...! I was so happy... And then you left me all alone...! I missed you so much... Hiiiii...! It hurt...! I felt so lonely...!"

"After all this time you are still the same Achan," Hanabi smiled adoringly as she hugged her face to the taller girl's chest.

"I missed you too, Acchan... It was hard for me to watch you from a distance and try to forget how much fun we used to have together. Very hard. That's why I felt I had to abandon you. Because if I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to fight you. And I was too frightened of how you might react if I had told you who I was."

"I missed you so much..." Sanae wept as she gradually calmed down.

"I'm sorry, Acchan. I'm so sorry. I wish I had been braver. I wish I had told you the truth. I'll never leave you again, "Hanabi comforted as she rubbed the back of the young woman she loved so much. "I'll always be truthful to you from now on, Sanae-chan. I swear, I will be yours forever."

"You owe me... Even if you don't love me anymore, you have to stay with me."

Hanabi giggled at the petulant voice of the young woman who was lovingly fondling her hair-locks and kissing her on the head.

"I promise," She whispered. "I'll be yours forever. I'll never leave your side."

"Good," Sanae smiled.

A few minutes went by as they stood swaying in one another's embrace.

"Are you really sure about this, Sanae-chan," Hanabi asked eventually, insecurity getting the better of her. "Do you really want to live with me?"

"I said so, didn't I," The redhead returned. "But where are we going to live?"

"I thought it would be safest for us to live with my uncle Ebato-san in Kyoto as sisters. He lives rather secluded, so there won't be much chance of us getting much attention from the people in the neighborhood. I think that will be safest after the arrests have been made."

"Are they really going to arrest everyone involved in the conspiracy?" Sanae asked. "Even our parents?"

Hanabi gave the taller girl a look as they relaxed their embrace, still with their arms around one another.

"Of course. Everyone involved is going to be trialed for high-treason. They're all getting what they deserve."

Sanae smiled at Hanabi's expression.

"And what are you naming yourself, imouto-chan?"

"I thought about Amane? But maybe you don't like that?" Hanabi blushed. "How..."

"Amane is fine," Sanae smiled as she gently caressed the blackette's hair. "I like that name."

A sudden knock on the door startled them.  
They separated and moved closer to the table in the middle of the room.

"You can come in," Amane announced.

To her surprise that person knocked again.  
The girls looked at each other.

Amane gave the door a suspicious look and repeated: "Please come in, Kamomebata-san!"

That person knocked again.

Amane moved to open, but Sanae moved in front of her.

"I have a bad feeling," The redhead whispered.

She moved towards the door and took the handle in her hand.  
As she turned the handle the door opened quickly and a fist to her face sent her flying.

Narumi Kanai grinned at Amane's shocked pale face.

"I was quite certain I might find something interesting If I followed you." He drew a razor-sharp tanto from underneath his vest and pointed it at Sanae.

"I really don't care what state I will bring you back in. But I can promise this much. You are both going back with me."

"You followed me?" Amane muttered in disbelief.

"You sound surprised," The arbitrator of her life replied while keeping his eyes on Sanae. "You are a very clever girl, but not as good at stealth as you seem to think."

Sanae glared at him.

"I think you better get up and join your friend," Narumi quietly ordered.

Amane considered giving the other woman an opportunity to strike by throwing one of her books at him, but she knew patience, as usual, would be the best strategy. Sanae put her arms around her as she came and stood next to her.

Narumi watched them with a cold smirk.

"Such a loving pair. Do you actually still trust her Minigawa-san? Or are you just too dense to know what is good for you?"

"Don't talk to her like that!" Amane warned.

"Yes, I trust her. I trust her with my life," Sanae growled. Amane looked up at the girl she had deceived and still loved her so much. Her heart pounded in her chest.

"Well... Perhaps fate will shine on you after all. I know how Kirishima-sama was looking forward to enjoying your body.  
He is forced to marry Uzume Gozen now, but you may find he does not mind having a devoted concubine to spoil both him and his Empress."

"I will cut off his hand before he lays it on either of us," Sanae spat.

Narumi stared at her. Unimpressed. He smiled.

"One thing I wonder about. Yasuraoka-san? What did the coffin contain and how did you manage to smuggle Minigawa-san here?"

Amane took a glance at the small cloth doll that graced her tokonoma.

"some friends of mine were able to smuggle her out of the temple in the night, just after the wake, and switched her body for that of a vicious rapist," She grinned.

"Such a nice trick," Narumi laughed. "No doubt your burakumin friends found it convenient to get rid of a friend who got killed in some drunken brawl. Still... That is one challenging act to perform. I can't imagine what service you provided for them to get them to agree to such blasphemy."

Amane clenched her teeth. "You are a disgusting fiend!" She screamed.

Narumi stepped closer and pointed his dagger at her throat. "I advice you to keep your voice low," He threatened.

The face of the arbitrator relaxed into a confident smile.

"And what are you?" He asked while he moved away from the door. "A girl with a different face for everybody. A girl who will deceive everyone who provides her with care and protection. Ungrateful, vicious..."

"If you don't stop talking to her like that right now I'll take that dagger from you and bury it in your skull."

Sanae looked him in the eyes without fear. Narumi could tell something had changed in her. He ignored the challenge.

"You are right," Amane replied. "I have done nothing but deceive the people who provided for me and cared for me. I thought only about my own interest. But I won't allow anybody to be endangered because of me anymore. You can take me back if you wish, but let Minigawa-san leave, please."

"Surely you don't believe I will allow that to happen?" The redhead commented.

Amane looked up at the older girl.  
"Please. Don't..."

"I'm tired of this. Neither of you is in a position to make any demands. It is time to leave. A horse and wagon must surely be procured by now. Please descend the stairs."

Narumi gestured towards the door.

Amane and Sanae shared a look before both of them went out and down to the front door of the meat shop silently, followed by the arbitrator of the ritual of divine selection.

* * *

As they came out they saw another man in a grey western suit standing next to a horse and wagon he had procured according to Narumi's instructions.

"Get in, both of you," Their abductor ordered.

Amane noticed how pale the other man looked and how he was unable to look Narumi in the eye. Something must be wrong.

Then, from behind the cart, Mr. Potato Head appeared.  
The Colonel silently stood next to the other man, not looking very happy either in his blue western suit and his hands cuffed in front of him.

A kenpei wearing a khaki uniform also appeared from behind the cart.

"Narumi Kanai, you are hereby ordered to surrender your weapon and accept your arrest," A voice behind them called out.

Four other Kenpeitai policemen came from behind the alley to the right of the meat shop and the other side of the wagon.  
For the first time in his life, Narumi Kanai lost his composure. He reflexively glanced at his two compatriots.

Sanae took the opportunity to push Amane out of his reach and together they ran to the policemen.

"There is nowhere to run to," A grinning major with a thin mustache proclaimed. "Your fellow conspirators have been round up and arrested during the night. Atsuya Kirishima and others have been killed during the arrest. We know everything Kanai-san. Hand over your weapon now."

Amane and Sanae moved out of the way in order to allow the kenpei to come closer to the arbitrator.  
One kenpei remained beside them. "Looks like we arrived just in time," The man told Amane in a gruff voice.

'Idiot!' The young woman cursed internally, glaring from him to Narumi who furiously stared at her when he heard the words.

"Of course, major," The young man calmly stated as he relaxed his lips into a smile and presented his tanto, holding the blade up in both hands. "I surrender to your authority."

"soldiers Aragaki and Mashiko! handcuff these gentlemen!" The lieutenant standing next to the major beside the cart commanded.

Sanae and Amane saw the nearest kenpei cautiously take the blade from Narumi.  
The other kenpei prepared the handcuffs while the arbitrator lowered his hands in front of him and slid his upper arm against his chest as if he had an itch.

As the small handgun appeared in his right hand, Amane spontaneously remembered the descriptions of western show magicians who entertain crowds by making objects appear out of thin air.

She heard the start of a shout come from her left, where Sanae stood, and she felt a slight pressure slowly increase against her left shoulder. But by then Narumi's weapon was already pointing straight at her.

'That's where he must have gotten the idea from,' She thought as she observed the look of pure hatred in his eyes. 'That's why even his western clothes have wide sleeves. It's a magic trick.'

In an instant Narumi Kanai lay on the grey tiled street, blood splattered around his pierced head.

Amane felt the body of the kenpei to her right hit her like a sack of rice. Sanae was yelling at her and pulling her into her arms.

"It was magic... A magic trick..." The blackette muttered.

"Hanabi! Hanabi!" Sanae yelled in tears.

"I'm alright. Akane-chan, please don't worry. I'm alright. Noriko-chan... Akane-chan..." She wept. "I'm alright. I'm alright..."

Both young women jumped up in each other's embrace from the sounds of several other gunshots.  
They turned their heads in the direction of the other two arrestees who now lay on the street next to Narumi, also with gunshots through their heads.

The major watched their pale faces as he and the lieutenant next to him pocketed their pistols.  
"They were resisting arrest," He simply commented with a sly grin. "They tried to attack us."

"Load them in the cart!" The lieutenant commanded his men while the major came and stood before Sanae who had her arms around a still pale Amane's shoulders and waist.

"We meet in the flesh at last, "Akiko". I am "Tekkan"," The major laughed boisterously. " You were wise to give us the name of the Colonel at last."

Amane's heartbeat was finally calming down, but it was still intimidating to be spoken to so roughly by this unsettling man after what had nearly happened to her.  
"Thank you for saving me," She muttered.

The major threw a look over his shoulder at the men who were just finishing with their dirty work.  
"That man was scum," He grinned. "That's how I knew what he was going to try. I would have done something similar. Only, I would have been faster!" He laughed again.

"We will take these corpses with us. You are free to pursue your lives. We have no more need of you," He concluded as if he might shoot both of them too at any moment, and saluted. "You have done the empire a great service, Yasuraoka-san."

Then he turned and got on the cart with the rest of the kenpeitai, laughing while they road down the street.

* * *

A few days later both young women stood on nearly the same spot at nearly the same time.  
But instead of kenpei and a carriage they had a rickshaw driver, Noriko's parents and a girl a little taller than Amane with a black ponytail and blue eyes named Yurika Takeuchi to keep them company.

Yurika was one of the young women who had been at the helm of the strike at the bamboo basket factory.

With a heavy debt to pay the factory and no immediate access to new employment, her former colleagues had been smuggling her into the dorms and sharing their food and tea with her.  
But police officers had already come looking for her in regards to payment of the debt and it was doubtful her friends would be able to protect her for long.

When Sanae brought Amane along to see them one last time before traveling to Kyoto the blackette heard of Yurika's situation and asked her as privately as she could if she might be interested in taking her place at the meat shop.  
She told the young woman that she wanted someone kind and reliable to be there for the owners after the death of their daughter.

Yurika had a hard time deciding whether she should accept the position and the stigma that came with it. But in the end, she didn't really have any other choice.  
However... When the lively intelligent young woman came to the meat shop to talk she and the Kamomebata's immediately got along.

Amane was relieved to know the couple wouldn't be left on their own once she started her new life.  
She and her former employers had a hard time parting, but eventually, they had to let go.

Sanae promised that they certainly would visit as soon as it was safe to venture in public again.  
And then they got into the rickshaw and drove off towards the train station while Amane fondly hugged "Noriko-chan".

"You are making me jealous with that doll," Sanae sulked as she watched the still closed shop fronts go by.  
"It never leaves your side. I wish I had packed it in your tansu when Kamomebata-san had it shipped to Kyoto."

"It's only make-believe," Amana smiled fondly up at her girlfriend. "I miss Noriko-chan. But I'll put her in the travel bag.

Sanae watched the short redhead next to her gently place the cloth pig-tailed doll in their tan linen duffel bag and pulled down the blue curtain over the front of their two-seating conveyance.

"remember, Uzume Gozen. You promised to be mine forever," She whispered in the violently blushing Amane's left ear as she pulled her close and kissed her.  
"And I expect you to be exclusively devoted to me."

"My worthless soul is chained to you for eternity, incomparable Amaterasu Gozen," Amane kissed back as her heart swelled from happiness.  
"are you happy, Sanae-chan?" She asked in her girlfriend's embrace and resting her head on her right shoulder.

The warmth in Sanae's heart stretched her head her lips as wide as they could go.  
"I'm not saying," She teased. "I could feel very insecure. But I actually feel very peaceful."

Amane gently kissed her lover.  
"As long as you don't tire of me I won't ever leave your side," She whispered.

"In that case, we are going to have to find work together," The taller girl smiled.

"I still have funds," Amane replied. "If we live frugally we can enjoy a long romantic holiday."

"I hope you don't plan on lazying around and read books every day," Sanae sighed.

Her cute girlfriend gave her a nervous look. "We can go swimming and sightseeing if we take care not to attract attention," She muttered.

"We will get up early every morning so I can properly teach you all those exercises you tried to copy from me when we were young," The taller girl said.

"Eeeh! Why? We don't need to train for battle anymore."

Sanae smiled and leaned closer. Amane was expecting a kiss. But she noticed her lover pulling a magazine from the travel bag sat next to her.

Amane couldn't get mad when she realized which magazine the taller girl had stolen from her collection. Rather she was embarrassed Sanae had found it, hidden between her editions of Myojo magazine.

But Sanae's cheeks were also red as she opened the magazine to a very peculiar drawing and whispered: "I want us to stay fit, so we can do things like this."

* * *

As the sun rose over the Empire of Japan two liberated young women, sharing loving kisses in an ordinary two-seating rickshaw, started their journey towards their new life together.

* * *

End credits: 96neko - Usa No Hibana  
watch?v=BdkXj2ixwFU


End file.
